The sub-$20K market has been gutted. In Q2 2019, vehicles under $20,000 made up 55.2% of used sales; today that's 31.8%. Under $15,000 specifically, the share nearly halved - from 31.6% down to 17.8%. Meanwhile, vehicles priced $50,000+ nearly quadrupled their share, from 2.3% to 8.3%.
What a fixed budget buys has aged dramatically. A $10,000-$15,000 budget now buys a vehicle that's 4 years older and has 40,000 more miles than the same budget bought in 2019 (8.7 years/98,222 miles today vs. 4.7 years/58,250 miles then). The pattern holds across every affordable bracket - even $5,000-$10,000 vehicles have aged from 8.1 to 10.7 years average, with mileage now exceeding 120,000. Interestingly, that cheapest bracket sells the fastest of any price range (25 days), faster than $50K+ vehicles (44 days).
Brand choice now matters enormously at a fixed price point. At $15,000-$20,000, example: a 3-year-old Kia with under 50,000 miles vs. a 7-year-old Toyota with 85,000+ miles - same budget, wildly different car. This actually complicates the old "just buy a Toyota" advice, since strong-resale brands get pushed older/higher-mileage at any given price point than faster-depreciating brands like Kia, Hyundai, or Nissan.
Three practical takeaways:
Move fast (affordable cars sell in under a month),
Stay flexible on brand (premium-resale brands cost you age/mileage at the same price), and
Compare total cost of ownership, not just sticker price.
But the hunt should always include finding out what the Car Inspection Score is!
Thanks for reading everybody!
-Paul