Average price of used vehicles | A jump of $11,000 in 12 months

We made jokes about the $8 cauliflower a few years ago. When the price of 2x4s tripled and a liter of gasoline crossed the $2 mark, the cartoonists made us laugh out loud. We can now expect jokes about rusty old cars that find takers at indecent prices.

The average price of a used car is now $35,135 in Quebec. What’s even more disturbing is that it’s a dramatic jump of $11,000 – or 43% – in one year. Only one year. This is the highest increase in the country. We are very far from salary increases…

Obviously, this is unheard of in the province. Both for the price reached and for the variation over 12 months.

This new data comes from the online platform AutoHebdo, which compiled the classified ads posted in April. The $35,135 is the average retail and dealer asking price. The selling price is probably a little lower.

In Canada, the average posted price is even higher (see graph). The progression helps to constantly reduce the price gap between new and used. From $20,000 two years ago, it has risen to $15,500.

Unlike cauliflower, which quickly returned to an acceptable price for making soup, used cars are experiencing an acceleration in their prices, and have been for months. “We are in the 30% or more increase since December”, specifies the director of the brand AutoHebdo, Benoît Béland.

The shortage of new vehicles, itself caused by the shortage of semiconductors, is at the heart of the problem. Many motorists cannot afford to wait months for their new purchase, or even more than a year in the case of electric cars. Not to mention that new cars cost more and become unaffordable for some people.

All these beautiful people therefore fall back on the second-hand market, which is experiencing a frenzy that even its employees find it hard to believe. I met two of them, Monday afternoon, in front of full courts. It was to wonder if the scarcity of vehicles is real.

“Since January, I no longer sell cars. It’s the world that buys it! There is a big shortage. It is not an illusion! The car that I sold for $2,500 last year has returned for $4,500,” Georges Moquin, of Auto Liquidation MB 2.0 in LeMoyne, an area of ​​Longueuil, told me.

While eating his spaghetti, the seller told me that 2021 had been a record year. But that this record will be “easily beaten this year”. In April, he sold 47 vehicles, which he considers “very good for a small garage” like the one that employs him.

His best advice to those looking: “If you see a car you like, deposit it or buy it. Because the next day, she won’t be there. It goes fast. » Don’t be too finicky about the color and know that the models at very low prices fly away shouting auto.

“Cars $5,000 or less, when I have one I post it online and it sells out within a day. It’s highly sought after,” says Georges Moquin.

A few kilometers away, the narrow courtyard of the company Financing specialists accommodates few vehicles. But fulfilling it is a challenge, says CFO Ilyass Bentalba. The company used to obtain supplies from short-term lessors (Budget, Avis, etc.), but they no longer liquidate their inventory at auction.

The retailer had no choice but to adapt. Now he buys leases from individuals (payment of the residual value to the concessionaire) and does a lot of trading.

Customers are beginning to find that “the prices are exaggerated, that it’s too expensive,” says Ilyass Bentalba. But those who sell their vehicle get amounts they never thought possible. The increase goes both ways!

Moreover, all sorts of situations arise that were unimaginable before the pandemic.

One of his customers who bought a 2018 Nissan Rogue for $19,000 had an accident after a while. The car was declared a total loss, and insurance gave it $24,000. Another customer who had acquired a Nissan Sentra last year for $15,000 had the good fortune to have it bought back at a higher price, by its seller, after a year.

I almost left them my old clunker 2010.