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Used-car lots are overflowing with late-model vehicles at bargain prices, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Prices have dropped about 5 to 10 percent, said Rob Gentile, manager of auto price services at Consumer Reports in Yonkers, N.Y. "Now is a great time for consumers to buy a used car that they wouldn't have been able to afford in the past," Gentile said.
The reason is simple. Detroit has been picking up the tab for financing on new cars since consumer spending froze after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The zero percent interest deals have lured hordes of new-car buyers, many of whom traded in their late-model used cars.
"In October, 400,000 more new cars sold than normal," said Paul Taylor, chief economist with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). "We think 53 percent of those cars had a trade-in, which put an additional 212,000 used cars in the marketplace nationally."
The increasingly important profit center continued making gains in the first quarter, according to StoneEagle data, ancillary products proving more popular as consumers hold onto their buys longer.
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