In this Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018, photo auto dealers examine used vehicles at the Manheim Detroit auction in Carleton, Mich. For more than three years, prices of used sedans have been falling in the U.S. as gas prices dropped and people shifted toward SUVs and trucks. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)Late in the spring, Bob Castaldi started checking used car prices online, wondering if it would be a good time to sell his family’s loaded-out 2014 Honda Civic.
Each month, the retiree from suburban Phoenix, Arizona, kept seeing the suggested retail price go up, rising a total of $700 to $900 depending on where the car would be sold. Last week, Castaldi figured the circumstances were right to list the car with just over 30,000 miles on it, and he put it on sale for $16,785.
What Castaldi found is evidence of a broader change in the car business: For the first time in three years, the price of used sedans has consistently risen, driven by demand from buyers who can’t afford to join the seemingly never-ending U.S. SUV boom.
“I was surprised to see that it had gone up,” said Castaldi, who has had inquiries but no offers yet.
Since gas prices started falling in mid-2015, new and used compact and midsize sedan prices largely dropped as Americans shunned the traditional family car for higher-sitting and more versatile hatchback SUVs. But earlier this year, things changed.