Every month at Prices People Pay, we analyse new data that our comprehensive used car price database has collected, to provide you the latest insights into the used car market. Here’s our summary for the month of October.
Top Sellers
During the winter period the market generally sees an influx of vehicles from the rental car industry, primarily consisting of Passenger and SUV vehicles, which adds to the supply. Passenger vehicles remain the primary seller in the market for October, followed by SUV’s and Lig0068t Commercials.
This contrasts with the new car market where SUV’s are the biggest seller, highlighting the new car market trend of diminishing Passenger vehicle sales is still taking time to flow through into the used car market.
Looking at individual models, Toyota continues to dominate the used car sales market with 3 of the top 5 most common sellers being Toyota badged. While the Hilux and Ranger stay firm in the top 2 spots (making up the majority of sellers in the light commercial space) the Camry, Corolla and Holden Commodore round out the remaining 3 spots.
There’s been very little change in the order of most popular selling models overall. The only exception is the Ford Territory which has dropped off versus last month. We’ve been expecting this seeing as it was discontinued years ago.
Comparing to last month
We expected a jump in supply in October which took place, with the largest increase in Passenger vehicles. As we move further into the summer months we expect supply overall to increase month to month as stock rolls off the fleet and rental markets.
Looking at individual models, there’s unsurprisingly more positive movements in supply across the board. There’s been an increase in Camry and Ranger stock being returned from fleet markets as leases begin the turnover process in the summer months. Aside from these two models, most vehicles have seen relatively small changes versus September.
Comparing to last year
Year-on-Year we’ve actually seen a reduction in sales across the board for October, something we saw in September as well. Like September the largest drop was in Passenger vehicles as well, although we also saw larger reductions in SUV and Light Commercial segments compared to last month as well.
The reduction in new car sales over the past 18 months is beginning to have an effect in reducing supply entering the used car market, so we expect supply to decline somewhat gradually over the course of the next 12 months. Passenger vehicles have seen the sharpest decline in new car sales so unsurprisingly we are observing a similar trend in the used car market.
Similarly, we’re seeing a reflection of activity in the new car market in sales of individual models. Passenger vehicles like the Toyota Camry, Toyota Hilux and Holden Cruze have all seen sale numbers reduce compared to October last year.
The Toyota Camry has seen a reduction even though it’s been a strong seller in the new car market, explaining the stronger prices we’ve seen for the Camry over the past few months due to short supply.
While we’ve seen reductions in sales of SUV’s, some of the greatest reductions have been for the Holden Captiva and Ford Territory which are two models that have been discontinued. With declining stock entering the used car market due to a dampening of new car sales, it’s likely we’ll continue to see strong reductions in passenger vehicles, with potentially some slight increases in SUV and Light Commercial vehicles as consumers veer increasingly towards these models.
Data Source
Prices People Pay sources data exclusively from Datium Insights. Feel free to check out their products and services page for more info.
