Used car market defies summer peak season trends... Large vehicles and SUVs decline, while American-made Teslas 'bounce back'

*This content was translated by AI.

The used car market, which typically shows stability during the summer vacation season, recorded an unusual price decline in July this year. This is attributed to efforts to clear accumulated long-term inventory within the market amid ongoing economic uncertainty.

According to KaCar, a direct sales platform for used cars, analysis of average July prices for over 740 models released within the last 10 years revealed that domestic car prices fell by 1.4% compared to the previous month, while imported car prices dropped by 1.5%.

By vehicle type, the decline was most pronounced in large vehicles, SUVs, and RVs, which carry high purchase prices and significant maintenance costs. Prices for major large-family cars such as Genesis G80 (-5.5%), Kia New K9 2nd Generation (-5.1%), Hyundai Palisade (-4.3%), and Kia Carnival 4th Generation (-2.8%) fell. Compact and mid-size sedans like Avante CN7 (-1.3%) and Sonata D-Edge (-1.9%) also showed downward trends. However, price adjustments for popular family cars such as the Carnival and Palisade have improved price accessibility for buyers anticipating summer vacations and Chuseok.

By model year, the defense of prices for near-new used cars stood out due to the end of the reduction in individual consumption tax on new vehicles. The 2026 models (-0.2%) and 2025 models (-0.7%) saw only negligible declines, whereas 2020–2024 models fell by up to 1.8%, and 2017–2019 models dropped by as much as 2.2%.

In the imported car market, high-end brands BMW (-1.9%) and Mercedes-Benz (-1.5%) continued their weak performance with widening declines. Major models including the BMW X3 (-3.0%), 3 Series (-1.4%), and Mercedes-Benz C-Class (0.0%) generally showed stagnation or downward trends. In contrast, Tesla saw mixed results depending on production location and model year. The 2020–2022 American-made Tesla Model Y rose by 2.0% amid expectations for the FSD V14 Light feature, while the 2023 and later Model Ys, which are predominantly Chinese-made, fell by 2.5%.

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*This content was translated by AI.