A strange article on aspokesmansaid.com:
Since the start of the decade, the price of the average second hand car has risen by more than 40% due to an excess of cutting edge models available on a pre-owned basis. The average price of a second hand motor is now a STAGGERING £13,000, as dealers are selling vast numbers of nearly new vehicles, rather than malfunctioning old bangers.
Some are attributing this increase in price to the advent of pay-monthly finance deals for new motors, which is leading to a higher turnover of new cars. As the era of car ownership starts to end, with “usership” becoming the new industry buzzword, motorists are hanging onto their vehicles for a fraction of the time they once did.
New models available second-hand despite being just one or two years old can still demand MASSIVE prices, driving up the average cost of everyone’s favorite old reliables. That’s backed up by research from Auto Trader, who report that sales of used cars that are less than 3 years old have increased by a massive 32% in the past five years alone... the average price of a new car is now £26,105―meaning that even with these price increase, canny drivers can still save BIG by shopping around and buying second hand.
According to the SMMT's excellent Motor Industry Facts, new car registrations have been between 1.9 and 2.5 million a year since the year 2000 = about 30 million new cars = as many as there are still on the road = average age of a car on UK roads is 9 or 10 years.
What is strange about the article is that it's not clear whether they think this is A Bad Thing (price of second hand cars is up, true) or A Good Thing (plenty of three year-old cars to buy for those who want to save 50% off list price, also true).
On a like-for-like basis, i.e. the second hand price of a three year old car today compared with the second hand price of a three year old car ten years ago, it strikes me that second hand car prices must have fallen, which is A Very Good Thing Indeed AFAIAC.