Used car prices hit record high, again!

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (WDEF) –With the supply chain, computer chip shortage continues to impact access to goods. Used Car prices have hit another all time high with the average price on a used car in Chattanooga costing over $25,000.

“I’ve been telling people to wait on buying a car they can and if you can continue to wait that’s still probably your best option right now,” said Karl Brauer, iSeeCars Executive Analyst.

For those who can’t wait any longer to get a car, buyers looking for a discount will need to get an older car with more miles.

“You use to be able to get maybe a two or three year old vehicle for say 15 to 20,000. Now you’re going to have to go to a five or seven year old vehicle to reach that same price point. And probably more miles on the car too,” said Brauer.

Brauer stresses the importance of convenience can be more expensive. He says buying a car a few hundred miles away is less convenient but can save money.

“Even if it takes you several hours to go get a car that’s a few hundred miles away as compared to 20 or 30 miles away, if you’re saving money and/or getting the car you want, that might be your best option. It’s worth your time to go get that vehicle. If you save $1000 on that process and it took you five hours to get that car and get back you make $200 an hour,” said Brauer.

With how expensive used cars have become he says It might even be worth it to get a new car.

“We definitely would suggest that you check, whenever you’re shopping for a used car, check the new car prices for that same vehicle. You might be surprised at how small the difference is and it might be worth your time and money to research the new version instead,” said Brauer.

The chip shortage doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon which means car prices will continue to remain high for the immediate future.

“We’re stuck in this pattern of not having enough gobble chips, microchips to the global automobile market. So, we are gonna be stuck here for a while simply because we are going to get out of this global microchip supply issue for the foreseeable future,” said Brauer.