Why the US used car market never recovered after COVID - new car sales cratered and never recovered, creating a 12 million car gap since 2020

Here's a visualization: https://imgur.com/a/4xSXu8D We know that the used car market relies on people buying new cars so that there are used cars. But car sales in the US was at a stable ~17 million for years, averaging 17,699,067 per year bet...

Here's a visualization: https://imgur.com/a/4xSXu8D We know that the used car market relies on people buying new cars so that there are used cars. But car sales in the US was at a stable ~17 million for years, averaging 17,699,067 per year between 2015 - 2019. Covid shortages caused 2020 - 2021 - 2022 sales to crater, and although sales floated back up between 2023 - 24, it still never reached the pre-pandemic number. The average post pandemic number is 15,612,631 sales per year. This creates an overall shortfall of 12,518,614 cars. At the same time, there is no true demand destruction - Vehicle Miles Traveled (TRFVOLUSM227SFWA) | FRED | St. Louis Fed The demand for cars is as high as pre-pandemic or even more. submitted by /u/Uptons_BJs [link] [comments]