Approximately 3.3 million used vehicles were sold in March.
The total was down nearly 4 percent from March 2022, according to new numbers from Cox Automotive. Sales are on an annual pace of 35.5 million.
“Sales are holding up fairly well given rising interest rates, but we expect them to see greater headwinds in April and through summer,” said Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive, in a press release.
With interest rates increasing to 10.26 percent, the average monthly payment topped $526, according shared in Experian’s State of Automotive Finance Market Fourth Quarter report. The average payment was up $11 from the third quarter, even though the amount financed was down $766 to $27,768.
The Cox Automotive report showed retail sales around 1.8 million for March, a year-over-year decrease of 3.5 percent. It was up almost 100,000 from February.
The annual pace for retail sales was 18.8 million, an increase from the revised total 17.9 million in February.
The updated annual forecast from Cox released after the first quarter expected total sales for used vehicles to be on par with 2022, with a total of 36.2 million.
