Used Car Prices on the rise

Dealers say the prices of used vehicles will continue to soar as inventories of lower-priced and economy cars shrink. Japanese auto makers Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. have warned their production could be limited through year-end. U.S. dealers say they expect to exhaust existing inventories and face severe shortages of new Japanese cars by July.

The topsy-turvy market has dealers that once quickly dumped trade-ins to wholesalers now holding onto those vehicles to fill out their shrinking inventories. The move is raising the value of trade-ins.