Dealer-Used Car Market Sees Second-Best Month in Four Years
- Second-best month of dealer-used car sales in 4 years, taking YTD volume to 9.8% up on the same period in 2023.
- Despite robust demand and reduced dealer inventory, the Price Index declined again for the ninth successive month.
- Meanwhile the wholesale market via Manheim grew 22% YoY, while average selling prices increased 4.4% over October.
Dealer used car prices declined by a further 0.6% in November 2024 over the preceding month on the Cox Automotive Dealer Delisted Price Index, despite robust sales and reducing inventory.
The Index ended November at 127.4, down 6.3% over the past 12 months and 14% since the market peaked in mid-2022. An Index of 127.4 denotes an average 27.4% selling price increase since the 100-point base period of December 2019.
Average selling prices for younger used vehicles across all segments remain significantly less inflated relative to pre-2020 levels than those of older vehicles. Likewise, hatchbacks and sedans are more inflated than SUVs or light commercials.
The average dealer discount on sold vehicles fell slightly in November, from 7.0% per vehicle to 6.9%, with 40.5% of all sold vehicles discounted at least once prior to sale. This was up over the full-year discount rate of 39.7% of all sold cars.
In terms of dealer-used vehicle sales, November volume increased 1.1% over the previous month and 11.4% over November 2023. The top-selling models were Ford Ranger (2072 sales), Toyota HiLux (1670), Toyota Corolla (1508), Toyota RAV4 (1494), and Hyundai i30 (1041).
The strong month of sales – the second-highest volume month in four years after August 2024 – saw inventories reduced by 3.1% over the preceding month, and market days’ supply dip from 63 days to 62 days – the second-lowest all year and well below the 70-day benchmark.
Moving away from dealer used retail data and over to the wholesale market, Manheim Australia sales volume grew 22.6% year-on-year, but declined 7.2% over the October tally.
In good news for vendors, the Manheim Price Index ticked upwards by 4.4% month-on-month to 135.2, although this Index is still 3.8% lower than at this time in 2023 and 19.3% down on the wholesale market’s peak of 167.6 in May 2022.
With one month to go in the calendar year, Manheim is tracking for volume growth in Australia of around 35% YoY, driven by significant upticks in Fleet Lease vehicles (up 39%), OEM compay vehicles (60%), Dealer wholesale vehicles (43%), and Government fleet vehicles (37%).
Manheim has also rexcorded double-digit percentage growth in volumes at all of its national auction sites – in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Newcastle and Townsville.
About Cox Automotive Australia
Cox Automotive Australia is a subsidiary of Cox Automotive US, the world’s largest automotive services and technology provider.
Our local team of almost 600 people works with 26 automotive OEMs, as well as an array of automotive dealers and with the private and public fleet sector. Our parent company has 29,000 employees on five continents and a family of trusted brands that operate across the globe.
Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with $22 billion in annual revenue working in multiple industry sectors.
Our brands in Australia include Manheim Auctions (passenger, industrial and salvage), Kelley Blue Book, Sell My Car, and digital retailing solutions including LeadDriver and Xtime – an aftersales customer management platform used by several of Australia’s top OEMs in their dealer networks.
Manheim holds in-person and online wholesale vehicle auctions across Australia and New Zealand, with unique auction driving lanes in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. Moreover, Manheim is a major salvage company for the insurance sector, and a major heavy industrial auctioneer.
For further information, please contact:
Mike Costello – Corporate Affairs Manager
M:+61 405 321 807 | E: mike.costello@coxautoinc.com
Read the latest full Market Insights Report Jul- Sep 2024 here
Definitions
Used Car Price Index
The Price Index tracks the movement of transaction prices relative to December 2019. It was created by taking the sold price of the used vehicles (from Dealers for the Retail Index or through Manheim auctions for the Wholesale Index), adjusted by the original Recommended Retail Price (RRP) when the vehicle was bought brand new, and volume weighted.
The base period is December 2019 with a value of 100 points. For example, an Index of 144.2 in May 2023 indicates that overall, the sold price has increased by 44.2% compared to December 2019.
Note that in calculating the index, the following vehicles are excluded:
- Brand new or heavy commercial vehicles;
- Vehicles that have travelled more than 60,000 km per year;
- Vehicles with more than 300,000 km;
- Vehicles less than two years old or more than 10 years old (for the Manheim Wholesale Used Car Price Index);
- Vehicles over 15 years old (for the Retail Dealer Used Car Price Index).
Active Listings
Level of dealer used and demo car stock in the reporting period. Active Listings represents a significant portion of used vehicle inventory advertised by Dealers nationally at the end of June 2023.
Sold Vehicles (Delisted)
Total Year-to-Date number of Dealers’ Used & Demo Vehicles delisted from advertisement in the reporting period which is assumed as sold.
Market Days Supply
Measuring the Supply & Demand dynamic by dividing the total number of Used Active Listings by the total number of vehicles sold within the last 45 days. 70 days MDS is the industry benchmark. MDS higher than 70 indicates over supply and vice versa.
Days to Sell
Dealers’ Demo & Used – Average Days to Sell measures the duration (in days) between when a vehicle was first advertised to when it was sold.
