Near-new & EV deals: Carma’s used car market forecast for 2025

2025 has rolled around before we could blink and with it comes the question: is it a good time to search the second-hand car market? We’ll start with the TL:DR: it’s likely to be a buyer’s market this year – so good news if you’re looking to buy a pre-loved vehicle!

Of course there are a few factors that to consider, including:

• The movement of the used car market
• An influx of brands and models in the new car market, which could free up second-hand stock, plus
• The cost of living and what might happen with interest rates this year.

We asked Carma’s Director of Buying, Peter Willis, what he sees for the year ahead. “Over my career, high-quality used cars have always been in demand – whether it’s as a second car, or for a savvy buyer who is dollar conscious. That being said, most of 2024 was a correcting market. 2025 should certainly represent more value for buyers.” We’re seeing some price-cooling effects already, with the used car market showing slower moving stock and lower retained values late last year.

The busy new car market will probably have an impact, as Peter mentions: “With more offerings from manufacturers, this may bring people back to the second-hand market to trade their car which they may have held off through the years of shortage. With visibility to the volumes of new cars, there is an expectation the market will shift heavily, which in some near-new cases will be true.” In other words – look out for better availability of second-hand cars that are almost new.

Does that mean you can expect bargain-basement prices across the board? Probably not, but there won’t be as many of those eye-watering prices of recent years. That being said, there is still a shortage of a particular vehicle type in the second-hand car market:

Quality 3-5 year-old used cars are still hot property

As Peter explains, the market is still feeling the effects of all that pandemic disruption when it comes to cars manufactured from around 2020 to 2022: “The traditional 3-5 year old high-quality used car is going to be increasingly hard to find. This is due to the shortages across the supply chains in those years. This will mean the competition for that car in the market should be high and maintain a fairly good value.” Some good news for any owners planning to sell their well-maintained cars of this age.

So what’s popular in used cars?

The Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux were still taking out Australia’s top used car spots as of December 2024, according to AADA and AutoGrab’s Automotive Insights Report, with the Toyota Corolla and RAV4 following in popularity. In fact, Toyota models took out four of the top 10 spots when it came to sales late last year, indicating a healthy demand for the Toyota brand – and perhaps its reputation for reliability!