Used-car purchasers face high-price sticker shock

Government data indicates prices are helping to drive the nation's inflation rate

• Merideth Bucher
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Producer of WITF's Smart Talk

If you are in the market for a used car, the timing couldn’t be worse. But if you’re looking to sell a car, now’s the time to get top dollar pricing.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, used-car prices jumped dramatically in June and over the previous year. The increase is so significant that it helped drive an overall increase in the nation’s inflation rate.

Used car prices and availability have steered people toward new cars, but that market is facing availability problems, too. The global supply of semi-conductors is impacting new car production because of supply and demand fluctuations created by pandemic shutdowns. That means car manufacturers can’t meet new vehicle demands by consumers turned off of used car price inflation.

Recent economic data indicates the situation is resolving slowly, but there are other new car component problems on the horizon.

Brian Moody is the Executive Editor for Autotrader and he appears on Smart Talk Tuesday to share insight into car market economic trends.