why are used american cars more it expensive then cars in the Uk or Europe? or is that because the dollar is worth more than pounds and euros?

8 comments

1. Could you provide some examples? I thought cars generally were cheaper in the US. Also – used cars have become much more expensive recently.

2. 1 GBP = $1,26, 1 EUR = $1,06. Both the pound and the euro are worth more than a dollar currently.

   So it’s probably some other explanation.

3. One might assume it’s supply/demand related. Most areas here require you to have a car, whereas parts of Europe more often don’t due to public transit or more walkable cities.

4. Do you mean in the US or in other counties? Typically US made cars are cheaper new than European cars are in the US but used euro cars go down in price more quickly due to cost of maintenance

5. Are they? We can’t provide reasons without any proof that this is actually true.

6. 1. A government program called [Cash 4 clunkers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System) took a lot of used cars off the road. A large portion of those cars were running vehicles that could potentially have remained on the road to this day. This means the cars available are ether newer or in demand. This program was universally hated by car enthusiasts, because it destroyed a lot of desirable cars in the process.

   2. The USA is a lot more spread out in most areas, and zoning laws typically put separations between areas that make it infeasible to walk to work or shops. This is more true outside cities, where public transit isn’t available at all. Cars are pretty much a requirement for productive life, so their utilitarian value is higher and a dealer can charge more.

   3. Bigger vehicles are a preference here, bigger vehicles are just more expensive.

   4. At the moment, the ongoing microchip shortage has made production of new cars slow down.

7. US “needs” more cars due to more drivers due to reliance on roads & there was a huge pool of cars that were apparently removed from circulation due to a federal program to remove clunkers from the roads (not sure the accuracy of that but I’ve heard it repeated multiple times).

8. Since 2020 the price of used cars in the US has skyrocketed. The prices you see right now are not normal, they are extremely inflated – just a few years ago you could have bought the exact same used car listed today for like 2/3 (or sometimes even 1/2) of the current price.