The bottom line: Used car prices rose in 2026, and you gain most if you’re selling an older full-size pickup, a car under twenty thousand dollars, where the supply has thinned, or in spring.
The average used car listed at $27,028 in July, up on a year earlier by Kelley Blue Book’s count. The CarGurus index read $28,973 in September, off its summer level but above a year ago.
Older cars didn’t share the rise. In our own offer data a car 10 years and older is typically offered $515 over the last twelve months, under the $560 it drew across all years.
For any other car, you compete against rising supply, especially off-lease returns and used EVs. Offers can vary by hundreds or even thousands of dollars depending on your car type and the buyer’s current inventory needs, so shop it to several buyers.
Compare offers from multiple services with Sell Car Advisor before accepting any single quote.
| Q3 2026 update (September 2026) | Status |
|---|---|
| Average used car listing price | $27,028 in July (Kelley Blue Book), up on a year earlier |
| Price direction | CarGurus index $28,973 in September, down over the prior 90 days and up on the year |
| Pickups | Average used pickup listing $36,384, roughly flat on a year earlier |
| Sedans | Average used sedan listing $21,528, up on a year earlier |
| Days on a dealer lot | 38 days for a three-year-old car (Edmunds, second quarter) |
| Cars 10 years and older | Typical offer $515 over the last twelve months, under $560 across all years (our data) |
Key Takeaways
- Prices: up in 2026 after two years of falls; the average used listing is back above twenty-seven thousand dollars by Kelley Blue Book’s count, still short of the April 2022 peak.
- New against used: the average new car peaked above fifty-two thousand dollars in December 2025, and CarGurus puts the gap to a used one at about twenty-one thousand, which keeps pushing buyers into the used market.
- Depreciation: trucks and hybrids lose the least in five years and electric cars the most, by iSeeCars’ 2026 study; the average car gives up about two fifths of its price.
- Dealer margin: the average franchised dealer grossed about fourteen hundred dollars per used car in 2024 by Presidio’s benchmark, so there is little room to overpay for a trade-in.
- Where buyers look: third-party listing sites reach more used-car buyers than any other channel, so listing quality and placement matter.
- Supply: about four hundred thousand extra off-lease cars return in 2026 by Edmunds’ count, which makes competing quotes more important than in recent years.
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Answers come from our state paperwork data and published guides. Confirm anything binding with your state DMV.
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Current Price Trends
Prices rose in 2026 after a long slide. Kelley Blue Book put the average used car listing at $27,028 in July 2026, up on a year earlier and still below the $31,095 peak of April 2022.
The decline is over. The CarGurus index read $28,973 in September, down over the prior 90 days but above a year ago; sedans are up on the year and pickups roughly flat.
Wholesale prices follow a different curve. Auction prices, what dealers pay to stock their lots, sit under retail, and a soft auction market shows up as a lower trade-in offer. The gap between what a dealer offers you and what it lists the car at is worth understanding before you walk into any negotiation.
Three-year-old vehicles hold the line. A three-year-old used car averaged $32,461 in the second quarter of 2026 by Edmunds’ count, up on a year earlier. Newer used cars continue to hold value better than older inventory.
The new vs. used gap is wide. The average new car peaked at $52,600 in December 2025, and CarGurus puts the gap between a new car and a used one at $21,000, up from thirteen thousand dollars in 2015. High new-car prices keep pushing buyers toward the used market, which keeps demand healthy even as supply grows.
Old cars did not share the rise. For a car 15 to 19 years old in our own offer data, the typical offer went from $600 in 2021 to $475 this year.
Best Times to Sell in 2026
Spring is the strongest window. New-vehicle sales peak in May and trough in January by the Federal Reserve Board’s seasonal factors, and tax refunds landing between February and April are part of why. For an older car the best month to ask is April and the weakest September in our offer data.
December is not the dead month it’s taken for. It is the biggest month of the year for light trucks, 19% above an average month. The guide to the best time to sell has the month-by-month pattern and which vehicle types run against it.
Market Conditions and Competition
It is a seller’s market for a pickup or a car under twenty thousand dollars: that end of the market has thinned, with 35.8% of sales now over $30,000 against about one in six in 2019, by Edmunds’ count. For a three-year-old car or an EV, supply is on the buyer’s side.
Supply is growing in 2026. Roughly 400,000 additional off-lease vehicles are returning to the market as pandemic-era leases mature, about 215,000 of them electric. More supply means buyers have more options and dealers are less motivated to offer high prices.
Days to turn. A three-year-old used car sits 38 days on a dealer lot by Edmunds’ count, unchanged on the year. If your car is in demand it will sell well inside that window; if it is average, expect about that long.
Budget cars are scarcer. Sales under $20,000 have fallen from over half the market since 2019, and the chart shows the shift. What $15,000 to $20,000 buys today is a car 6.0 years old, 71,192 miles, where in 2019 it bought one under four years old.
If you are selling an affordable car, you have more room to negotiate than the broader data suggests.
Where used cars now sell, by price Share of all used sales, dealership-reportedShow the numbers
Price band Q2 2019 Q2 2026 Under $15,000 31.6% 17.8% Under $20,000 55.2% 31.8% Over $30,000 16.8% 35.8% Over $50,000 2.3% 8.3% 
What’s Selling Fast?
Trucks are the fastest-moving segment. A used pickup lists at $36,384 on average by CarGurus’ count, and even a high-mileage F-150, Silverado or Ram 1500 averaging 120,000 miles lists at about $20,000. A Tacoma loses 19.9% of its price in five years against 37.9% for an F-150, by iSeeCars.
EVs move fast but lose value hard. A used electric car finds a buyer quickly, but it loses more of its price than any other type: a Tesla Model Y gives up 57.8% in five years and a Nissan LEAF 63.1%, by iSeeCars’ 2026 study. If you own an EV, sell sooner rather than later.
Hybrids hold value. Hybrids lose 35.4% in five years, the best of any type after trucks, and they are 34% of used sales this year by CarGurus’ count. A Prius gives up 32.1%, a little more than a plain Corolla or Civic, so a Toyota hybrid doesn’t hold its price better just for being one; if you own one, you have time to be selective about your offer.
Understanding Dealer Economics
Dealers work on thin profits. Knowing their costs helps you negotiate. This is what Presidio’s benchmark of the average US franchised dealership shows for 2024:
| Cost factor | What it means for sellers | Data point (Presidio, 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Gross profit per used vehicle | Dealers earn less per car than most sellers assume | $1,399, down on 2023 |
| Gross profit per new vehicle | The new-car side earns more per unit and is falling faster | $2,247, down a third on 2023 |
| Finance and insurance income per vehicle | The loan and the warranty are where the rest of the margin sits | $1,581 |
| Negotiation insight | A car that has sat past the five or six weeks a used car averages may make the dealer keen to deal | Check listing age online before visiting |
How Does Your Car Depreciate?
The 5-year picture. The average car loses $16,571 of its price in five years, about two fifths, by iSeeCars’ 2026 study, and the loss eased 3.8 points on the 2025 edition. It is not spread evenly: the first year is usually the steepest.
How much a five-year-old car has lost, by type 950,000 five-year-old cars sold March 2025 to February 2026Show the numbers
Type Five-year depreciation Trucks 34.2% Hybrids 35.4% Small SUVs 41.7% All cars 41.8% Midsize SUVs 47.0% Large SUVs 52.1% Electric 57.2%
- Best retention: trucks and hybrids, which lose about a third of their price in five years.
- Worst retention: electric cars, which lose well over half; the chart has the figure for each type.
Mileage benchmarks matter. What a price band buys tells you where average sits: $15,000 to $20,000 buys a car 6.0 years old, 71,192 miles today by Edmunds’ count, and $5,000 to $10,000 a car 10.7 years old, over 120,000 miles. If your car has fewer miles than that for its age, that is a real selling advantage to use in every listing and negotiation.
- The sweet spot: below the average mileage for its age adds real value.
- Over 100,000 miles: a pickup with 120,000 miles still lists near twenty thousand dollars, by CarGurus’ count.
What else moves the number, from color to accident history, is in what affects the resale value of a car.
Trade-In Values and Selling Options
Retail vs. trade-in: know the gap. A dealer lists a car for one price and offers you a different, lower price for it. That gap is how they make money: the average franchised dealer grossed $1,399 on each used car it retailed in 2024, before overhead.
If you trade in, you usually accept less money for the convenience of not having to find a separate buyer. In some cases the tax savings on a trade-in offset the difference; the trade-in tax guide has the rule for every state.
Whether a dealer trade-in is worth it covers what the dealer does with your car and what to do if you owe more than the dealer offers for it.
CPO is a real opportunity if you qualify. Most manufacturer certified pre-owned programs cap age and mileage. Inside the cap, a franchise dealer (a Honda dealer buying a Honda, for example) will often offer more because it can sell the car for a higher profit than a standard used car.
Online buyers often beat trade-in offers. For a car in good condition, getting a quote from an online buyer like Carvana before walking into a dealership puts you in a stronger position. You either take the better offer or use it to push the dealer higher.
For an older car the gap between buyers is measurable. Put a car 10 years and older to two or three buyers on the same day and the best and worst offers typically come back $314 apart in our data, and in 39% of cars the best is at least double the worst, which is the whole case for shopping it around before you trade it in.
How far apart the best and worst offer are on the same car 998 cars 10 years and older, each quoted by two or more buyers on the same dayShow the numbers
Best offer against worst Share of cars Offers Within 10% 9.5% 95 10% to 25% apart 11.7% 117 25% to 50% apart 17.5% 175 50% to 100% apart 21.8% 218 Double to triple 18.8% 188 More than triple 20.5% 205 
Where Are Buyers Looking?
Most used-car buyers shop online. If you are selling privately, you need to be where buyers are searching. The chart shows which channels used-car buyers used while shopping, from Cox Automotive’s buyer study.
Where used-car buyers look 770 used-car buyers surveyedShow the numbers
Channel Share of used buyers Third-party sites 77% Dealership sites 60% Search engines 41% Online used retailers 34% Social media 26% Automaker sites 22% AI tools 11%
For a private sale, platforms like the top used car listing sites give you direct access to the buyers already searching in your area. For a faster sale, get quotes from several online buyers and compare them; none of them commits you.
Who’s Buying Your Car?
The average used car loan was $27,070 in the first quarter of 2026 by Experian’s count, up on a year earlier, and 2.39% of car loans were 30 days late in the second quarter.
Your listing should lead with the value angle, not just the features: what the car costs to run, what it has had done, and what it would cost new.
The Size of the Used Car Market
The fleet is old and it turns over slowly. The average car on the road is 13 years by CarGurus’ count, and a passenger car averages 14.5 years by S&P Global Mobility’s, with about 4.5% of the fleet scrapped each year.
Your 2026 Selling Action Plan
The 2026 market is not bad for sellers. Demand stays healthy because a new car costs roughly twice the average used listing, and supply is growing in specific segments (EVs, off-lease vehicles) more than others.
- Sell your EV now. Every month you wait, it loses more value: electric cars lose more of their price in five years than any other type by iSeeCars’ count. Use an instant offer service to get a number fast. Our EV selling guide covers which buyers offer the most for electric vehicles.
- Sell a car in spring and a truck in December. May is the peak month for car sales and December the peak for light trucks on the Federal Reserve’s series; the seasonal guide has the month-by-month detail.
- Use your mileage as a tool. If your car has fewer miles than the average for its age, mention it in every conversation and listing. Low mileage for the vehicle’s age is a genuine, verifiable selling point.
- Get at least 3 quotes. Dealer inventory needs vary by location and lot: one dealer might have ten of your model already, another none, and their offers will reflect that. Getting multiple quotes takes less than an hour online and can mean hundreds or thousands of dollars more in your pocket.
- For older or high-mileage cars, instant junk car and damaged car buyers like Peddle or Wheelzy often move faster and require less back-and-forth than private buyers or dealers. Both offer free pickup.
- For a private sale, using a secure payment service like KeySavvy protects you from payment fraud and title issues. Car selling options compared weighs the routes against each other.
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Frequently Asked Questions
Will used car prices go up or down in Q4 2026 and early 2027?
Nobody publishes a reliable forecast, but the data shows a pattern. The CarGurus index slipped over the summer but sits above a year ago, and new-vehicle sales usually thin out in January and pick up again in spring, peaking in May.
December is the exception for trucks: it is the strongest month of the year for light trucks, 19% above an average month. For a car 10 years and older the typical offer dips from spring to September in our data and recovers by winter, but the same car quoted again a month or more later typically came back $40 lower, so an old car rarely gains from waiting.
Does a salvage or rebuilt title hurt what I can get for my car?
Yes. Edmunds puts the discount for a salvage title against a clean one at up to 50% of the car’s value, mileage and condition being equal.
Most private buyers and franchise dealers will not touch a salvage title car, which narrows your buyer pool a lot. Online junk and damaged car buyers like Peddle or Wheelzy are typically the most realistic buyers for these vehicles.
How do tariffs in 2026 affect used car sellers?
Tariffs raise the cost of new cars and imported parts, which can push buyers toward used vehicles and help keep used car prices firm.
For sellers, this is a net positive: a buyer priced out of a new car is a buyer for your used one.
The effect is not uniform. Tariffs hit some new car brands harder than others, and when a specific new car gets a lot more expensive, the corresponding used version tends to hold its value better.
Should I lower the price or wait for a better offer?
For an older car the data says waiting costs. Old cars lose ground while they wait: quoted again a month or more later by the same buyer, the typical car 10 years and older was down $40, and 59% got a lower number the second time.
A three-year-old car sits five to six weeks on a dealer lot on average, so a private listing that has gone longer than that with no serious buyer is usually priced above the market. Lower it, or put it to two or three online buyers and take the best number.
Article Update History
Market figures now come from Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds and Cox Automotive, among other industry sources, and old-car figures from Sell Car Advisor quote data.
Every figure checked against current industry sources.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
"Federal Reserve Seasonal Factors for Motor Vehicle Sales" Accessed Mar. 18. 2026.
How far apart the best and worst offer are on the same car, Junk Car Value Statistics
"998 cars 10 years and older, each quoted by two or more buyers on the same day" Accessed Oct. 16, 2026
Junk Car Value Statistics, Sell Car Advisor
"On this page: 8 figures from 17,628 instant cash offers, and 2 figures from same-day quotes by several buyers" Accessed Oct. 19, 2026
"$27,028, average used car listing price; $31,095, used car price peak; $52,600, average new car price at its peak" Accessed Sep. 11, 2026
"$28,973, carGurus used car price index; $36,384, average used pickup listing; $21,528, average used sedan listing; $21,000, gap between new and used prices; $20,000, what a high-mileage pickup lists for; 34%, hybrids as a share of used sales; 13 years, average age of a car on the road" Accessed Sep. 11, 2026
"38 days, days a three-year-old used car sits on the lot; $32,461, average price of a three-year-old used car; 35.8% of sales, used sales over $30,000; 400,000, extra off-lease cars returning in 2026; 215,000, off-lease electric cars returning in 2026; 6.0 years old, 71,192 miles, what $15,000 to $20,000 buys; 10.7 years old, over 120,000 miles, what $5,000 to $10,000 buys; up to 50%, salvage title against a clean title; 29.6%, underwater trade-ins; $13,330, average equity in a trade-in that is not underwater; 66%, what a three-year-old car keeps of its sticker price" Accessed Sep. 11, 2026
"19.9%, five-year depreciation, Toyota Tacoma; 37.9%, five-year depreciation, Ford F-150; 57.8%, five-year depreciation, Tesla Model Y; 63.1%, five-year depreciation, Nissan LEAF; 35.4%, five-year depreciation, hybrids; 32.1%, five-year depreciation, Toyota Prius; $16,571, average dollar loss after five years; 3.8 points, depreciation eased year over year" Accessed Sep. 11, 2026
Presidio-NCM Average Dealership Performance Benchmark
"$1,399, gross profit per used vehicle retailed, average US franchised dealership, 2024; $2,247, gross profit per new vehicle retailed, average US franchised dealership, 2024; $1,581, finance and insurance income per vehicle retailed, average US franchised dealership, 2024" Accessed Sep. 21, 2026
"Where used-car buyers look" Accessed Sep. 11, 2026
"$27,070, average used car loan; 2.39%, car loans 30 days late" Accessed Sep. 11, 2026
"14.5 years, average age of a passenger car; 4.5%, share of cars scrapped each year" Accessed Sep. 11, 2026
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