USED CARS SELLING TWO DAYS FASTER THAN LAST YEAR IN NOVEMBER
6th December 2024, London – Used cars are selling two days faster than last year amid solid demand and improving pricing trends, according to the latest data from the Auto Trader Retail Price Index.
Auto Trader assesses over 800,000 daily pricing observations from across the whole retail market. It shows that the average price of a used car last month was £16,492. Month on month, the market has shown a modest decrease with prices down 0.6% vs October. November 2024 was in line with historic norms and marks the fifth consecutive month of improvement in year-on-year pricing trends, reflecting robust retail demand.
Cars are selling two days quicker than 2023, taking 31 days to leave forecourts. Electric vehicles sold even more quickly last month, at 28 days, with three-to-five-year-old EVs selling within 22 days on average.
Despite audience activity and fast speed of sale, data from the UK’s largest automotive marketplace also shows that up to £26.5 million in potential profit has been missed by retailers who are under-pricing sought after stock compared to average market values.
The continuation of fast sales rates is being fuelled by still-resilient consumer demand, combined with the ongoing constraints in certain segments of used car supply. Whilst stock levels were down -6.6% in November, despite seeing the first MoM decrease since July, YoY demand sat at +5.5%, resulting in a strong market health of +13.0% YoY.
The November figures show the average price of a used petrol car down 4.7% at £14,710, diesels down 5.8% at £14,077 and electric vehicles priced 11.7% lower at £26,390. The typical plug-in hybrid has lost 10.5% year on year at £30,598.
The outlook is also positive as Auto Trader’s forecasts published this week show the used car market is expected to maintain the strong growth momentum of the last two years and rise from an estimated 7.61m sales this year to around 7.70m in 2025.
Despite the political instability of a general election and a challenging economic backdrop, used car demand remained extremely resilient this year, as reflected in the 975.0m visits to Auto Trader over the last 12 months, up 70m on 2023. The predicted 2025 growth means the market will be within just 3% of pre-pandemic volumes.
November is continuing the trend of a strong finish to 2024. Last year many retailers followed the wholesale market in dropping prices sharply with a strong and somewhat unnecessary impact on retail values and profits. But buying confidence as well as retail pricing have steadied this year, as shown by the more typical price movements we’re reporting in recent months. We’re still seeing a significant amount of profit being left on the table though and with January’s buyers already on their purchasing journey, it’s vital retailers follow the data, whether in sourcing the best vehicles for their market or in pricing and merchandising their cars to maximise their commercial opportunities.
Sources
On average, we see that retailers are under-pricing their sought-after vehicles - leaving up to £26.5 million in potential profit on the table.
Source: Auto Trader internal data. Data based on a snapshot of used car adverts from Independent and Franchise retailers on 18th November 2024. Data extracted to get an average figure from a subset of 64.098 adverts from 8,936 retailers, using used car stock that is priced below 100% Price Position on Auto Trader and with a retail rating above 61/100, meaning they are cars that are in favourable market conditions where demand is exceeding the level of supply.
975.0m visits to Auto Trader over the last 12 months
Time period: Dec-23 to Nov-24, internal data
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