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The Street

Samanda Dorger

20 Used Car Models That Have Dropped in Price the Most

Toyota Nissan iSeeCars MercedesBenz Tesla Inc. Audi Infiniti Jaguar Maserati BMW

It’s been a painful three years for anyone hoping to buy a used car for a decent price.

New-car shoppers have been paying above sticker price since the pandemic, when a worldwide microchip shortage and factory shutdowns reduced new car inventory, and that has made used cars more desirable, driving up prices.

In February 2023, average new car transactions were nearly 30% higher than the same month three years ago, prior to the pandemic shutdowns, according to Kelley Blue Book, which says the average new car sold for $49,388 in January.

Used car prices averaged below $21,000 pre-pandemic, then skyrocketed to over $31,000 in 2022, according to media reports.

Edmunds data puts the average used car transaction price in February 2023 at $28,195. Cars.com says that the median price for all used cars among Cars.com dealers in February 2023 was approximately $23,000.

Could it be possible that used car prices are dropping?

A study by auto search engine iSeeCars.com found that overall, used car prices are down 4.7% since September and 8.7% from last year, and several models are down even more.

The iSeeCars study analyzed used cars sales on their site in February 2022 and February 2023 to identify used car pricing trends and which models have seen the biggest price increases and biggest decreases over the past six months and year.

Average prices for the Tesla Model 3 have dropped over 20% in the last six months, and one Infiniti model has dropped 22.3% over the past year, iSeecars found.

Yet, some models are heading in the other direction, with prices higher than they were six and 12 months ago. Several luxury models went up in price--as much as 11%.

To determine which used car models have dropped the most in price, iSeeCars analyzed over 1.8 million 1- to 5-year-old used car transactions in February 2022 and February 2023. The average listing prices of each car model were compared between the two time periods to find the percentage difference from the 2022 price as well as a dollar difference.

Heavy-duty vehicles, low-volume vehicles, vehicles discontinued as of the 2022 model year, and vehicles with fewer than four of the five model years for each period were excluded.

Here are the used car models with the biggest price drops, plus the ones that have gone up the most, according to iSeeCars.