THE latest data from Cox Automotive Australia’s data solutions division has set another all-time record for the average price of used cars listed across a wide sample of Australian dealer websites with the average asking price by dealers rising to $41,041 in October.

This compares with dealer asking prices of $40,958 in September and is a rise of just $83. This compares with $40,692 in August, a rise of just $266 over July.

These latest prices are a further indicator that dealers are at the ceiling of the recent record price gains of the past two years. But it is worth noting that the price for October is around $14,380 more than dealers were asking in July 2020 and some $8760 more than they were asking in July 2021.

Data that tracks used car prices across the total used car market (not just dealers) shows that used car prices are now easing and have been for some months. (See separate article).

The Cox Automotive data tracks the asking prices of used cars when they are first posted online by dealers as a measure of the dealers’ highest expectations.

The data, gathered by Cox’s AutoRadar service, also tracks the price of the same cars when they are delisted as an indicator of the transaction prices achieved.

In terms of delisted prices, that number has come in at a record $36,698, up from $36,365 for September. It was up from $35,973 in August and marginally up from $36,135 in July.

As reported in GoAutoNews Premium last month, while these prices are in a rarefied atmosphere compared with two years ago, the very modest increases recorded by AutoRadar in recent months indicates that support for prices, even on dealer cars which are of superior quality to the private market in general, while holding, are now hesitating to drive up any further.

In terms of stock holdings, newly-listed used vehicles in October totalled
38,380 compared with 42,859 in September and August when 47,886 were added to online listings.

This compares with 44,127 newly-added units in July and 46,340 in June.

This is the first time since April last that the volume of newly-listed vehicles dropped below 40,000 units suggesting dealers are struggling to find as many used vehicles to sell than they enjoyed for the past six months.

Meanwhile, active used vehicles listed for sale by dealers in October totalled 82,654 units compared with 83,930 units in September. In August active used vehicles listed for sale by dealers totalled 82,911 and July it was 81,101 units. June had 79,211 active vehicles.

By John Mellor