My daughter wants to buy her first car (pre-owned) and is discouraged by the prices.
I went looking for a used car myself this weekend and my wife and I were utterly taken aback by the prices so I concur with your daughter’s dilemma.
Tell her to wait, with all the “clunker” customers defaulting on auto loans, there should be a glut of one owner used vehicles pretty soon.
The shortage of used cars pushes the prices UP!
It’s simple supply and demand.
My wife and I just bought two used cars well below "blue book" pricing.
There are 240 million cars on the road. The cash for clunkers program sold 700000. That's .3% of the total. It has had no effect on the price of used cars. The real culprit is that new car buying is way down. People are buying used cars to avoid locking in on a 5 year loan for $400/month.