Though used vehicles sales have been on the rise for the last seven consecutive years, the auto market, in general, has seen a recent dip.
According to CNBC, auto dealers have been noticing slowing sales, which is subsequently causing some concern that a long-exacted auto decline is right around the corner.
“We are definitely seeing business pull back,” said Scott Adams, owner of a Toyota dealership in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. “September was off some, but this month our car sales are down 12% and our truck sales are down 23%.
Since the most frequently searched for vehicle price range is around $5,000 or less, the used vehicle market isn’t experiencing as much of a decrease in sales as newer models — but auto loan interest rates have been increasing, as well, which could impact the entire auto industry.
During the second quarter of this year, the average vehicle interest rate was 5.76%, up from 5.2% for the same time in 2017.
Still, taking a step back, auto sales are still quite robust and are even on pace to top 17 million vehicles for a fourth-straight year, which would be a record for the industry. But a decline could possibly be looming.
However, there has been a recent surge in online used car shopping that could potentially save the oncoming decline.
According to 660 City News, the rise in the used vehicle market goes hand-in-hand with the improved quality of used automobiles nowadays, since cars are lasting much longer than in the past.
“It takes 23 years to remove the vehicles from the road now, a decade ago it only took about 12, so it [has] essentially doubled,” added Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. “It’s not that far long ago, call it 15 years ago or maybe 10 years ago, where the used car market was largely a culture of deceit… even if the online capacity was there, there was just so much riffraff in the used car market that it was very dangerous. A lot of that has changed.”
If you want to learn more about the used car market, auto sales in general, or check out vehicles at trusted used car dealerships, give Auto Sales and Service a call right away!
