The zero percent financing offers that have boosted new-car sales to record heights are shaking up the used-car market, too, according to the Wall Street Journal.

As buyers take advantage of Detroit's financing deals for new vehicles, inventories of used cars are piling up, forcing most used-car dealers to slash prices to move vehicles off their lots. But according to a story in the Journal by Sholnn Freeman and Karen Lundegaard, some are holding back and expanding their used-car lineups even more, betting that demand for new cars will weaken early next year when the attractive financing offers end.

The upheaval in what amounts to a futures market in used vehicles has a lot of players on

edge, according to the Journal. Manufacturers are finding that leased vehicles at the end of their contracts are fetching less than expected at the big wholesale used-car

auctions where dealers buy stock. At the same time, many dealers, who also routinely put cars up for sale at the wholesale auctions, have been pulling their cars out after receiving unacceptably low bids.

Consumers are the clear winners in all this, according to the Journal. Prices are now some 10 percent or more below summer levels. The wholesale selling price for a late-model used car was $9,300 in October, down from $10,400 in August, according to data from 140 auto auctions nationwide. Last year, prices dropped between $300 and $400 during the same time period.

So far in November the average price has fallen another $100.