After used-car sales reached record volumes in 2021, strong demand — and the higher price tags attached — will stick around for 2022.
That means dealers will go to great lengths to source used cars and trucks to stock their lots this year even as they continue to benefit from pricing power and higher profits amid the industry's persistent new-vehicle shortage. But facing another year of scarcity and soaring prices, some dealers are worried about the longer-term impacts of changes in shopping patterns or customers carrying too much debt.
For instance, high prices could cause consumers to hang on to their vehicles longer, and that could hamper the flow of used vehicles coming back to the retail market, dealer Troy Duhon told Automotive News.
"It's not evident yet, but my concern is, with the rising transaction prices, will that cause the average trade cycle to go from three and a half years to five years?" said Duhon, president of Premier Automotive Group, with 28 stores in Louisiana, Texas, California, Kansas and Missouri.