What price goes up while this economy goes down?

Ask any car dealer and they will tell you. Price of gas efficient cars of course. Looks like this is happening across the country for many different car models. I read that some buyers are also paying more than asking. Don’t believe me? Check out the car prices article here. What is driving the price hike you ask? Gas prices of course. With this logic, if you are in the market for a gas guzzler, expect to pay below invoice. Let me know if you succeed.

Excerpt from the article:
“It’s extremely high right now,” Haile said. “The small cars are very hard to get right now. The cars that were $5,000 are now $7,000.”

In the past year, the average used small car price has gone up 2 percent, from $9,278 to $9,470, according to wholesale auto auction data collected by the National Automobile Dealers Association. There’s evidence that the prices are accelerating, according to recent data from J.D. Power and Associates.

The increases are in contrast to used full-size sport utility vehicles, whose prices have dropped $1,600 to $2,000 in the past year, said Paul Taylor, the NADA’s chief economist. The average sale price of all used vehicles in the U.S. dropped 2.5 percent in the past year, the NADA reported.

The swings are directly related to gasoline prices. For the past three years, small and midsize used car prices would rise with seasonal oil price increases, then drop when fuel prices moderated, Taylor said. But gas prices haven’t dropped and continue to rise this year, which has kept the small-car trend going, Taylor said.