Used Cars Fall in Price in 2011

While the economy of the United Kingdom saw high inflation over the course of 2011, the price of used cars actually fell by more than £100, according to the most recent figures.  On average, the cost of a used car fell from £9,155 in 2010 to £9,018 last year, research from Auto Trader suggests.

However, because there were fewer new cars sold three years ago during 2009, this means that there are now a lot fewer used cars that are just three years old on the market today.  This has resulted in their prices rising by more than 6% over the course of the last two years.  By comparison, vehicles that are more than a decade old have fallen in price by an average of 6%.

The average price of a used vehicle in London has fallen from £10,097 during 2010 to £9,504 last year, with nearly 16.7% of them being more than ten years old.  Prices generally fell throughout last year until around November and December, when they increased slightly.  

"The impact of reduced new and used car transactions, created by relatively weak consumer demand, is leading to lower overall retail prices for used cars" says one of the directors of Auto Trader, Tim Peake.  Peake says that this translates to being very good news for anyone who is intending to purchase such a vehicle over the course of this year as there are likely to be some extremely good deals on offer.

Author - Michael Barclay
 

published: 09/02/2012