If you think used car prices increased significantly in the last several years, you’re not wrong. On average, prices are up 47.7 percent since 2019. Mileage is also up, with most vehicles having 46 percent more miles on the odometer than the same models four years ago. This means buyers shopping for an inexpensive used car face the problem of spending more money on an older car or one with more miles.
Those are the findings of a recent study by iSeeCars, a popular website that provides data and guidance on purchasing used vehicles. According to the results, popular cars like the Honda Civic or Toyota RAV4 are 41 to 46 percent more expensive today than in 2019. Full-size trucks like the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram 1500 increased 30 to 50 percent in the same period. In terms of dollars, this means the average used car price rose from $23,351 to $34,491 in four years.
But it’s not just prices that increased. The average used car’s mileage also increased 45.7 percent, going from 43,541 to 63,457 miles in the same time period. Mileage on the full-size trucks listed above increased an average of 49 to 53 percent, while the Honda Civic and Toyota RAV 4 were up 81 and 139.6 percent, respectively.
To produce the study, ISeeCars analyzed over 10.8 million one to five-year-old used vehicles. In addition to the increases in prices and mileage, it found that the days of the $20,000 car with less than 44,000 miles are numbered. While 20 percent of the used car market met those criteria in 2019, only 11 percent of the market is priced between $15,000 and $20,000 today, with the average vehicle having over 63K miles.
However, one bright spot is that used car prices dropped this year. In a separate study, iSeeCars determined that overall prices decreased 4.7 percent from September 2022 to March 2023 and 8.7 percent year-over-year. Among the models with the largest declines are the Tesla Model 3 and SUVs from Nissan, Infiniti, and Land Rover, all of which dropped around 20 percent.
