Opting for a good used car over new is supposed to be a smart financial move. Before 2020 pandemic shutdowns led to inventory shortages of new cars, a used car would often save you big money—especially on high-depreciating models that often lost 30% to 40% of their value within the first three years.
But these days, cars are tougher to come by—new and used—and when supply is low and demand is high, driving a hard bargain isn’t so easy. Some people have ended up wildly overpaying for used cars—paying even more, in fact, than the price of a new version.
Most car search engines allow you to filter by search range, and widening your search for a car helps—you’ll find more inventory, more options, more models, maybe even the color you want, and most important you’ll probably find better deals. It might be worth it to travel 100 or 200 miles to get a car at a better price.
To find the best and worst cities to get a deal on a used car, auto search engine iSeeCars.com looked at the 50 most populous metro areas to determine the used cars that are priced the most above and below the national average, analyzing over 1.3 million 1- to 5-year-old used cars from the top best-selling models sold between January and April of 2022.
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The average asking price of each model in each metro area was calculated, and the highest and lowest prices were compared to each other, as well as the nationwide average price. They excluded cities and models with very low inventory.
The popular Subaru Forester was cheapest in the area around Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis. The Forester cost the most, on average, in Columbus, Miss., with an average difference of $7,889, or 23.5%, between the two metros.
If you live in Fairbanks, Alaska, is it worth it to spend $1,000 on a 9-hour flight to San Antonio, Texas to save $10,738, or 32.4%, on that Nissan Rogue you’ve been eyeing? That’s up to you.
Are you looking for a used Honda Civic? Search in Lincoln, Neb., where the price averages $23,375—that’s $4,794 cheaper than the national average, a savings of 17%.
Here is where iSeeCars found the worst car deals around the country, followed by the five best cities to look for the models that offer the average best-bargains.
