The average transaction price for a three-year-old used vehicle reached $32,461 in the second quarter of 2026, a record for the quarter and a 4% increase from a year earlier, according to Edmunds' Q2 2026 Used Vehicle Market Report. The figure is also up 15.5% from the second quarter of 2021, the report found.
Vehicles priced under $20,000 accounted for 31.8% of used vehicle sales in the quarter, down from 55.2% in the second quarter of 2019, Edmunds reported. The share of vehicles sold for under $15,000 fell from 31.6% to 17.8% over the same period, while vehicles priced at $50,000 or more grew from 2.3% to 8.3% of sales, according to the report.
Same budget, older vehicle
The age and mileage of vehicles available at lower price points also increased. In the $10,000 to $15,000 range, the average vehicle sold in the quarter was 8.7 years old with 98,222 miles, compared with an average of 4.7 years and 58,250 miles in the second quarter of 2019, according to Edmunds data reported by Auto Remarketing. Ivan Drury, Edmunds' director of insights, wrote that the same budget "now buys a vehicle that's four years older," according to Auto Remarketing's coverage of the report.
In the $15,000 to $20,000 range, average vehicle age rose from 3.4 to 6 years over the same period, while average mileage climbed from 41,851 to 71,192, Auto Remarketing reported, citing Edmunds data. Vehicles in the $5,000 to $10,000 range saw average age rise from 8.1 years to 10.7 years over the same period, according to the same report.
Edmunds also analyzed the 15 most frequently purchased brands in the $15,000 to $20,000 range and found shoppers in that bracket could choose between a three-year-old Kia with fewer than 50,000 miles or a seven-year-old Toyota with more than 85,000 miles, according to CBT News' coverage of the report.
Despite the price increases, three-year-old used vehicles sold at a similar pace, spending an average of 38 days on dealer lots in both the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026, Edmunds reported.
Part of a broader pricing trend
The shift comes as Cox Automotive's Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index, a separate measure of wholesale used-vehicle prices, nearly matched year-ago levels in mid-August after posting a 6.2% year-over-year increase in March. A CarGurus year-end market report also found consumers shifting toward older used vehicles amid affordability pressures in 2025. Edmunds reported a similar affordability squeeze in the first quarter of 2025, when the average transaction price for a three-year-old used vehicle first exceeded $30,000 since the second quarter of 2023.
