From my limited perspective they may already be correcting.
Looking at asking prices I reckon my 2020 Vitara, bought in October, would now be priced at 10-15% less. Its trade in value (from pricing tools not real offers) is probably only two thirds of what I paid for it. So dealer margins are returning.
New cars are also advertised on Autotrader at good discounts albeit in limited numbers.
We Buy Any Car offers are well down on our wider family fleet that I casually monitor.
Whether these isolated examples are representative of a trend only time will tell.
The big factor in pushing up future used prices may be the £15k per car fine manufacturers will face for new ICE cars above their quota. The implications on price and availability hasn’t yet dawned on the wider public.
Overall, as SLO says, it’s hard to predict.

Two separate car price things buried in that

1) "I now see my old car at another dealer being offered for sale at more than I paid for it as a used car 3 years ago" - Used car sale prices rose dramatically as a knock on effect during covid due to the lack of new car availability (chip shortage etc...) and haven't yet dropped pre covid levels. My son bought a 2016 Octavia at the end of 2019 and even today it would cost him more to buy a similar 2016 car even though it's now older etc..

2) "Having had various trade-in quotes, two dealers offered me 15% above the WBAC offer." - This is usually normal - trade-in quotes are part of the overall cost to change deal, trade in prices are sometimes inflated to attract a customer but you'll get less discount as part of the transaction.

Hopefully things are getting more back to normal.

Edited by Big John on 02/02/2024 at 09:28