Used car price growth reached record levels in August as values stay sky high - Auto Trader

1:43 pm, September 3, 2021

Price growth reached an all-time high last month as the used car market continues to boom, data from Auto Trader has revealed.

The Auto Trader Price Retail Index found that growth reached 17.2 per cent year-on-year in August.

Last month also saw the largest single month-on-month increase – up from 14.1 per cent in July.

The spectacular figure was also more than double the rate of growth recorded in May, surging from an already very strong 8.1 per cent.

The index is based on daily pricing analysis of around 900,000 vehicles, giving an accurate overview of the state of the market.

It found that in August, the Jaguar XK rose 48.3 per cent to an average asking price of £26,447.

That was closely followed by the Jeep Grand Cherokee, which rose 34.2 per cent to £20,704, and the Mazda MX-5 which jumped 33.9 per cent to £13,091.

The market strength, fuelled by ‘massive’ levels of consumer demand in the market, was reflected in a huge growth in traffic to Auto Trader over recent months.

In August, there were 70.2m cross platform visits, representing a 36.4 per increase on the same period in 2019.

It also it marks a record level of August consumer demand and is the second highest number of monthly visits ever recorded.

Consumers spent 10 million hours researching their next car on the marketplace, which is an 18 per cent increase on 2019.

Richard Walker, Auto Trader’s director of data and insight, said: ‘To put the price movement into context, in August 2020 average prices were increasing at a rate of six per cent year-on-year, which at the time marked a new record.

‘Whilst few could have imagined a year later, growth would be accelerating at nearly three times that rate, we’ve said throughout the pandemic that we anticipated sustained levels of growth fuelled by the strong consumer demand in the market, even when other commentators predicted a collapse in prices.

‘It reinforces the importance of being data led in all aspects of your business, especially when the market is moving so quickly.

‘The data still indicates exceptionally strong levels of used car demand, which has been given an additional boost from the ongoing new car supply constraints.

‘With what we’re observing we expect the growth rate to continue for some time to come.’