IRVINE, Calif. -

The average price gap between a new car and a comparable one-year-old vehicle these days is less than 12 percent, according to Kelley Blue Book, which has found that for some models, the difference in price is less than 1 percent.

More specifically, in its list of 10 New Vehicles to Buy New Rather Than Used, KBB listed these four models as having less than 1-percent gaps when comparing new to one-year-old units:

Chevrolet Camaro LT Coupe 2D (0.5 percent)
Toyota 4Runner SR5 Sport Utility 4D (0.8 percent)
Toyota FJ Cruiser Sport Utility 2D (0.9 percent)
Subaru Impreza 2.0i Sedan 4D (0.9 percent)

Furthermore, while the average price gap is 11.5 percent between new and one-year-old models, for some segments, the difference is even smaller.

“Used subcompact and compact cars only offer consumers an average savings between 5 to 7 percent, while used hybrid cars and mid-size crossovers are within 3 to 4 percent of an equivalent new vehicle,” explained KBB senior market analyst of automotive insights Alec Gutierrez.
 

“After factoring in incentives and lower finance APRs on new cars, purchasing a new vehicle is in many cases only marginally more than purchasing used,” he added.

And this, Gutierrez shared, has led to new-vehicle sales encroaching into the used-car market.

There has been a consistent uptick in the new-car market, but the same cannot be said for used sales. Gutierrez said that March through May saw used registrations drop between 4 percent and 5 percent.

“While traditionally shoppers would save thousands of dollars by purchasing a slightly used vehicle rather than new, this is no longer the case; as used-car values remain near their all-time peak, Kelley Blue Book sees new-vehicle sales cannibalizing used vehicle sales,” he stressed.

The impact can also been seen in online traffic trends, Gutierrez noted, pointing out that “there has been a 5-percentage-point shift in new-car shopper activity since January” on Kbb.com.