After setting 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, the average asking price since then has, while holding, drifted sideways indicating that buyers’ appetite for these rarefied valuations is waning.

The numbers over the past five months are $40,692 in August, $40,958 in September, $41,041 in October, $40,936 in November and $40,612 in December.

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 $14,000 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. 

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.

The number for December is $36,109 compared with $36,200 in November, a record $36,698 in October, $36,365 for September, $35,973 in August and $36,135 in July.

As reported in GoAutoNews Premium, 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.

Comparing asking prices with prices achieved, the data shows dealers are having to give up around $4000 a car and have been doing so for some months.

In terms of stock holdings, newly-listed used vehicles in December totalled 39,598 compared with 41,964 in November, 38,380 in October, 42,859 in September and 47,886 in August. 

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

Meanwhile, active used vehicles listed for sale by dealers in December totalled 85,269; up from 82,881 in November. 

November. This is the highest number of vehicles in dealer stock in AutoRadar July 2020. 

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