These 10 Used Cars Shot Up in Price Over the Past Year — Some by Nearly 44%

• Used car search engine and research firm iSeeCars.com published a study showing models whose prices increased the most over the past year.
• The analysis looked at 1.8 million used car sales in July 2022.
• Used car prices are up 10.9% on average year-over-year.
• Because of high gas prices, electric and hybrid car demand is strong — and used EV prices rose 56.7% from this point a year ago.

Some used cars and trucks have started to drop in price, but most are still expensive.

As we see story after story of new models getting price hikes (sometimes by thousands), you may understandably move your search toward the pre-owned market for a better deal. Unfortunately, with such strong demand prices are still high there too, as researching site iSeeCars.com show in a recent study. The analysis covered some 1.8 million used car sales in the US last month and showed an average increase of 10.9% — or $3,364 — for vehicles over this time a year ago.

Of course, some cars skew well above that average, while others actually faced a relatively small increase or even dropped in price. With gas prices excruciatingly high in late June into early July, the sort of vehicles at each end of the price spectrum shifted along the lines you’d expect. More efficient cars are up to 43.8% more expensive than July 2021, and the best-case scenario among the top 10 still beats the average by a wide margin, at 26.8% higher than last year.

Top 10 Cars with the Highest Price Hikes, per iSeeCars.com:

The Nissan Leaf used to be a famous depreciator — and a great used buy — but recent fuel prices have likely flipped the script on that. It’s a similar story with the Chevrolet Bolt, and several popular hybrids are also seeing a surge in demand, with prices rising to suit.

So, what if you’re looking for a deal on a used car purchase?

On the other hand, larger and less efficient cars are seeing a sales slowdown, by and large. The big, thirsty Nissan Armada, for example, saw pricing drop by 7.4% against the average from July 2021. With an average transaction price of $37,922, it’s down $3,022 from last year. The Chevrolet Camaro is a similar story, with a drop of 6% ($2,187 less expensive than July 2021).

Some more cars (and trucks) on the other side of this study, like the Ford Mustang and Volvo S90, more or less held steady. Their pricing changed less than 1% from July 2021, illustrating less ravenous demand for those models against some fully electric cars and hybrids.