K Car "Affordable Used Car Prices Will Decline"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] The ongoing decline in used car prices since May is expected to impact the price drop of so-called “practical used cars” priced around 10 million KRW.

On the 3rd, used car platform company K Car analyzed the average prices of about 740 domestic and imported models released within the last 12 years circulating in the domestic used car market. They announced that the average price of practical used domestic cars priced around 10 million KRW is expected to fall by about 2%.

Practical used cars refer to vehicles that are suitable for practical use or as a first car, typically 7 to 10 years old with around 100,000 km mileage. These vehicles are optimized as entry-level used cars due to their reasonable price range, mainly around 10 million KRW.

These vehicles experienced a price increase along with rising demand in 2021, when the used car market was booming and buying and selling activities were active. Due to increased demand, the prices of these vehicles even exceeded 10 million KRW, but with the recent decline in used car prices, they have shifted to a more accessible price range.

Looking at the models with the highest decline rates by vehicle type, the sedan category is expected to see the highest drop of 5.6% in Kia’s “The New K5” sold from 2013 to 2015. In the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) category, Kia’s “Mohave” sold from 2007 to 2016 is expected to drop by 5.3%. In the Recreational Vehicle (RV) category, Chevrolet’s “Orlando” sold from 2011 to 2018 is expected to decline by 4.8%.

On the other hand, imported cars are expected to decline mainly in high-priced vehicles. Due to the characteristics of expensive imported cars, consumers are presumed to feel burdened by high maintenance costs such as insurance premiums, parts prices, and vehicle management expenses.

Among the top 10 imported cars with the highest price drops are high-priced vehicles over 50 million KRW such as Mercedes-Benz “GLE-Class W166·W167,” Lexus “LS500h 5th generation,” and Land Rover “Range Rover 4th generation.” These vehicles are expected to decline between 7.8% and 4.6%.

Min-Gu Lee, Senior Analyst of K Car’s PM1 Team, explained, “The overall decline in used cars, excluding nearly new cars, is sequentially occurring from 3 to 7 years old models, and the prices of practical used cars have returned to their original levels after about two years. This will be welcome news for consumers who hesitated to purchase due to the high prices of used cars recently.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.