Used Car Prices Rising

GAITHERSBURG, Md. (WUSA) -- Scott Addison, Sales Manager at Gaithersburg's Fitzgerald Auto Mall, says used cars were cheaper at the beginning of the summer than they are today.

Addison says the increase is a direct result of the cash for clunkers program.

"It's a supply and demand thing right now," says Addison. "People have been trading in other cars, bringing them in for the clunker program and now all of a sudden, these cars are not available to the market place."

Don and Sharon Fratantuono planned on their "new" car being a "used" car until they realized there wasn't much difference in price between new and old.

Says Don Fratantuono, "For a few bucks more I ended up with a brand new car with a hundred thousand mile guarantee on it."

Part of the reason Don and Sharon opted for a new Hyundai Accent, may have something to do with the "cash for clunker" deal being offered to Jose and Altagracia Gonzales.

They're buying a new Toyota Corolla. Because the Gonzales' clunker, a Chrysler Concordia, is heading to the scrap yard, it will be one less used car on the market.

Addison says, "You know, we do a hundred deals in a day, normally half those customers have a trade in, now it's about 20 percent of these customers have trade ins."

Dealers don't have exact numbers on how much more used cars cost now than they did a few weeks ago, perhaps only a few hundred dollars each. But they say because of the amount of business they've been seeing through "cash for clunkers" they expect to see those used car prices continue to climb.