Buy or wait? Used cars are cheaper and most sold after a price cut

A used car is about $1,600 cheaper than a year ago, and most of the cars that sold had a price cut first. Waiting could save you money, or cost you the car you want. The answer depends on whether you're waiting for the market or for the car.

Prices fell in June and haven't come back

Prices fell in June, and July was one of dealers' busiest months of the past two years, with about 69,000 used cars coming off the market.

A dealer-listed car was about $350, or 1.3%, cheaper in June than the same car in May. Prices stayed around that level in July, at 1.5% below May, and haven’t climbed back since.

The same car is about $1,600 cheaper than last September

July’s brief pause didn’t turn into a price recovery. By September, a dealer-listed car was about $1,600 cheaper than the same car in September 2025, a drop of 5.8%.

That’s broadly in line with the wider market, where the same car was 6.5% cheaper across dealer and private listings combined.

Every price here is the asking price, not what the car sold for, and the same car means the same make, model, age and kilometres. Dealer demonstrators, the near-new cars a dealer has registered and driven, are left out. So it's your car getting cheaper, rather than a cheaper mix of cars on the lot.

For your own car, knock about 6% off what it would have been listed for last September. On a $40,000 car, that's about $2,300 off last September's price.

Take a used Subaru Forester at about $28,000 on a dealer’s lot in September. If it fell with the market, it was around $1,600 cheaper than the same car a year earlier.

The cars that left mostly had price cuts first

Most cars that sold or came off the market had already had an asking price reduction. In September, 64% of dealer-listed cars had at least one price cut while they were for sale, compared with 42% of privately listed cars.

For cars that were reduced, the typical drop was about $1,500 on a car initially listed for $26,890, or 5.6%. One in four of these cars had its asking price reduced by 10% or more.

A price cut here means the asking price came down while the car was for sale, measured against the price it was first listed at. On a car like the Forester, one of the deeper 10% cuts is about $2,800.

What this means if you're buying or selling now

If you're buying, the market is on your side when it comes to price. The same car is about $1,600 cheaper than last September, and most cars that sold or came off the market had already had a price cut. But the data can't tell you whether the car you want will still be available later.

September's figures don't tell us whether prices have finished falling. A dealer-listed car was about $1,100, or 4.2%, cheaper in September than the same car in May. But those figures describe the market as a whole, not what will happen to any one car.

If you’re waiting for prices to fall further, you could save money, but there’s no guarantee the car you want will be there when they do. If the car in front of you isn’t right, keep looking. If you find one that’s fairly priced against similar cars, it may not be there for long.

If you're selling, most cars that sold or came off the market in September had already had a price cut, typically by about $1,500. A car still priced at what it would have been listed for last September could be about $1,600 more expensive than a comparable car today.

Peter Willis, Carma’s Director of Buying, says: “If you find the right car at a fair price, don’t assume waiting will automatically get you a better deal. Prices are lower than last year, but a well-priced car won't hang around. If you’re selling, buyers are there, but they’re price sensitive. Cars priced to today’s market are the ones that'll sell.”

Whether you’re buying or selling, Carma takes the guesswork out of pricing: fixed, fair prices on every used car, plus seven days to drive and decide. Browse our used cars if you're in the market to buy, or get an online valuation to see what your current car's worth today.