James Ruppert: New car prices have doubled in a decade – so buy used Car News

These are very strange times. The value of almost new used cars has increased, computer chips are lacking for new engines, and new car prices are not falling. In fact, research from financial firm Moneybarn suggests that the retail prices of some cars have actually doubled over the past decade.

In case you were wondering, the average cost of buying a new car increased by 39% from 2011 to 2021, from £ 27,675 to £ 38,585. Moneybarn calls it “carflation”, but the good thing is that we only cover used cars on these pages.

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Exhibit A on the carflation front is apparently the Jeep Wrangler. The 2011 price was £ 22,515, but it is now £ 48,920, an increase of 117.3%. The Wrangler you could buy 10 years ago will be different when it comes to specs and other accessories, but we’ll stick with that and see what we can buy. You can go really old fashioned and get a Sport 2000 soft top with 2.5 liter gasoline for around £ 8,000. Otherwise, a four-door example from 2009 looks quite contemporary. It’s a 2.8 CRD Sport Unlimited with almost 100,000 miles and four previous owners, and it can be bought for £ 14,995. Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Next on the list of price hikes is the Peugeot 3008, which has gone from £ 17,195 to £ 37,310. It’s a huge change, but the model was redesigned in 2016, which is part of the reason for this. You can get the former for less than two thousand dollars. Alternatively, a 2015 revamped example as a 1.6 BlueHDi Allure with satellite navigation, a rear view camera and a panoramic sunroof with just 45,000 miles logged is a perfectly reasonable £ 7,995. Then there was another Pug (the 508 sedan), then the Mercedes-Benz V-Class (a minivan based on a minivan), then a few “normal” cars, starting with the Hyundai i20 and the Volkswagen Polo. Both were £ 9,500 cars 10 years ago, but now cost £ 18,000 and £ 17,000 respectively. Whore.

You can get an older i20 from around 2009 for under £ 1,000. A 2012 1.2 Classic with just over 65,000 miles and a decent history, meanwhile, will set you back £ 3,400. When it comes to the Polo, there are big cheap miles, but I saw a 2014 1.2 TDI CR Match with a recent timing belt change, less than 70,000 miles and two previous owners for 5,495 £.

I found all of this rather interesting, and I realize that new car buyers rarely take such huge sums of money out of their savings account. On the contrary, most are PCP funding. But the point is, they are committing to the big lump sum that going new is involved.

Obviously, you will stick with the tried and tested, and rather cheaper, used option.

Tales from Ruppert’s Garage