Sales Decline Slightly as Vehicle Shortages and High Prices Persist

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Working once again with our friends and colleagues at the Used Car Dealers Association, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants reached out to the used car dealer community. Close to 500 UCDA members responded to our survey with both independent dealers and the used vehicle arms of franchised new vehicle dealers offering their perspectives on the used vehicle market in the first half of the year.

According to the surveyed members, the first half of 2022 presented both challenges and opportunities for the used vehicle market. “The used vehicle market has been hugely disrupted by the various impacts of new vehicle shortages” commented Andrew King, Managing Partner of DAC. He continued, “For the first half of 2022, sales decreased as sourcing became even more difficult, and prices remained at stratospheric levels.”
 
According to dealers, used vehicle sales have—on average—fallen in the first half of 2022 when compared to the first half of 2021. While used vehicle dealers have seen a minor increase in average sales, up from 65 to 67 units sold, new vehicle dealers have seen their used vehicle sales drop from 165 to 148 units on average.
 
When asked what sales volumes they expect throughout 2022, used vehicle dealers cited an average of 146 units with new vehicle dealers expecting used sales at 286 units on average. When asked this question in our previous survey in January 2022, used vehicle dealers expected sales to reach 214 units on average with new vehicle dealers expecting 313. Overall, combined sales expectation dropped from 256 to 189 units.
 
One of the persistent issues impacting both the new and used vehicle markets has been vehicle supply, with new vehicle shortages leading to large shortages in used vehicles as well. When asked about the change in their supply situations, the majority of both new and used vehicle dealers cited a worsening situation, at roughly sixty percent of responses. A further 30.7% of both dealer types noted no change from the already difficult situation in 2021, with just 9.9% citing an improvement.
 
As soon as demand shifted from the new vehicle market to the used, prices began to shoot up for used vehicles. When asked how prices shifted for particular used vehicle types in the first half of 2022, results largely pointed towards increases. For passenger cars, a combined 78.0% of responses pointed towards price increases with just 5.0% noting price drops and 17.1% noting no change. For the comparatively more popular SUVs, results were similar with 76.4% of responses pointing towards price increases. For both passenger cars and SUVs, the largest portion or responses pointed towards increases of between 11 and 20 percent. For pickup trucks, 68.3% of responses pointed towards price increases—spread somewhat more evenly in terms of percentage—with 18.6% of responses noting no change and 13.0% citing a decrease in price for the first half of 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

Reference:

Desrosiers Automotive Consultants. DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2022, from https://www.desrosiers.ca/