What should car dealers expect from the used car market this summer?

Welcome to this week’s episode of Used Cars Weekly, the original CBT News show dedicated to bringing car dealers best practices and tips for the used car department, in-depth dealer interviews, hands-on dealership strategies, and vendor analysis. Today, host Jasen Rice, founder of Lotpop, discusses the current state of the used car market and what car dealers can expect over the next 30-60 days.

Prices are skyrocketing across the country as inflation spikes and commodities like gas rise to record levels. These factors heavily impact pick-up trucks and SUVs, which have been very popular over the last few years, and they also affect what is available in the used car market. According to Google Trends, over the past 12 months, the index for shopper count for used cars dropped 27% year-over-year. 

Lotpop also tracks the two-week sales volume for their dealer partners. Last year, car dealers were selling almost 100% of their inventory. Now, that number has dropped to around 80%. If the next 30-45 days continue as they did at the same time last year, then dealers should prepare for a slow down in shopper activity. Let’s take a look at used car listings. How many used cars are listed nationally in the market? Rice says about 100,000 more listings are available today than last year. 

Dealers are having record months, but if they wait to see bleed-through, they are already 30-45 days behind the curve. With this information in mind, Rice recommends that car dealers use the next two or three weeks to tighten up their inventories. That way, by the end of June, the inventory will be clean.

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