Greenville dealerships talk vehicle prices as costs cool

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GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Used vehicle prices hit a new record in June 2021, rising 45%. That’s based on the Consumer Price Index. However, those prices are finally dropping, with the most recent study showing an 8.8% decrease.

“Things are definitely coming back in line now. I would say over the last six months, [the] used car market definitely turned better for the consumer, and most cars now are priced to market, which are in the consumers favors,” said Greenville Nissan Operations Director Scotty Tuner.

This price drop has been the most significant since 2009. Prices started to soar in June 2020 due to lack of inventory, but now they’re beginning to normalize.

“So right now, we have more and more new car inventory coming in,” said Tuner. “Now they can show more locally instead of having to go outside of their market area, their DMA, to find a car that they are really searching for.”

However, even though prices have dropped nationally, Tim Stox, the general manager at Greenville Motor Company, said their sales still haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“I was advantageously looking for inventory before it happened, and I knew what was coming, so I had more inventory than everybody else,” Stox explained. “We, therefore, sold more cars than everybody else, but as time has progressed, yeah, it has definitely slowed down. Business is probably 50% of what it normally would be.”

However, that may be due to the lack of used car inventory.

“Here recently, prices have come down, but it’s still supply and demand, feast or famine, when it comes to auctions and finding inventory,” said Stox.

According to Edmunds, an online resource for expert car reviews, the average price of a used car is down nearly $1,600 from the record high in April of 2022. With this price drop in used cars, today’s average used car price is about the same price as a new car was in 2010.