Well, folks, apparently it’s continuing on.  The problem we reported on earlier with Cash For Clunkers having the unintended consequence of drying up the used car market is getting worse.

Used cars in general are getting more scarce, and those that remain are going up in price despite the overall weakness of the economy.  But, in a bit of good news, this also means that your used car is worth more in trade if you’re looking to trade your car in for a newer model.

Car dealers express it best this way:

“Most of our sales, maybe 90 percent of it, is in the 5-year-old and older cars,” he said. “You ask me how many of those we didn’t sell – every one of those in a Cash for Clunkers deal, whatever that number is.”

Supply and demand comes back to haunt us all.

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It’s not a surprise that dealers would say this, at least those in Colorado Springs, but according to them used cars are about to get a whole lot tougher to find and cost a whole lot more.

Basically, it’s Cash For Clunkers that did the used car in, say dealers, who further elaborate that the wholesale market for used cars has seen price hikes of two to three thousand dollars.  Most of the cars that would have gone onto used car lots are now instead languishing and waiting their inevitable destruction after they’d been traded for better, more fuel efficient rides.

Clever, really–with fewer used cars on the market, more people in need of a new car will have little choice but to buy new.  Of course, this is all sort of a joke anyway, because in about two to three years, all the new cars today will probably wind up as used cars when people go to trade them in on new cars once again.  Sure, consumer spending is down, but it’s not out, and a new car will always be high on some folks’ lists.

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