(OPINION) It turns out that all of the “doom and gloomers” that were warning that we would eventually experience nightmarish inflation were right after all. In particular, vehicle prices have become exceedingly painful in recent months.
Due to a crippling global shortage of computer chips, the production of new vehicles is way down, and a lot of that demand has shifted into the used vehicle market. Over the past year, used vehicle prices have escalated at a pace that we have never seen before in our entire history, and things reached a crescendo during the month of October.
If you can believe it, used vehicle prices increased by 9.2 percent last month… The industry’s key index of used vehicle prices jumped another 9.2% over the span of just a month. That puts the index 38% higher than a year ago — compared to “just” 27% for the same stat in September.
If used vehicle prices rose by 9.2 percent for an entire year, that would be really bad. For that to happen in just one month is simply breathtaking. Overall, used vehicle prices are up a total of 38 percent over the past year, and they are now up a total of 59 percent since October 2019.
So if you purchased a new vehicle within the past couple of years, it may now be worth more than when it was brand new. To fully appreciate the insanity that we are seeing in used vehicle prices, I would encourage you to check out this chart. READ MORE
