According to experts, used-car values in Billings and across the country are increasing.
Ivan Drury, senior manager of insights for Edmunds.com, said recently that this trend in used car values is “unheard of.”
“We have seen an appreciation of used vehicle values, which is unheard of. From one month to the next, to actually get more money for your vehicle, is definitely a sellers’ market,” says Drury.
However, Drury said that he has experienced this trend firsthand when he sold two of his own cars.
“I sold my Dodge Challenger for basically flat even. I drove it for one year for free,” said Drury. He said he also sold a Ford Fusion and ended up making money on that one.
Drury said the used market has been fantastic for sellers across the board, but he does predict that this increase in value will not last long.
“It's definitely going to start seeing some drops. You’ve got a month, two months and you will still be up compared to if you had sold the vehicle six months ago,” said Drury.
He said that if you're thinking about selling or trading in your used vehicle, now is the time to make the move.
Keith McNally, general manager for Hertz Car Sales in Billings, said Monday that he has also noticed used cars are maintaining and increasing his value.
“We found that even people that are trading with us, that the car that they purchased a year or so ago is worth the same amount of money generally. There hasn't been much depreciation. You know availability of cars is less, the values have gone up,” says McNally.
He said that when major automakers stopped production of new vehicles, that caused an increase in demand for used cars among buyers. This also made it difficult for rental companies like Hertz to maintain inventory. As a result, values start to rise.
Above all, McNally says this increase in used car values is not something that he has seen before.
“It's new to me, I’ve been doing it 37 years and it’s a different time. What has happened during this pandemic has been totally different from anything I have ever seen,” said McNally.
