Used car prices rose for a second straight month in August, but they are still cheaper than they were a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Consumer Price Index. The used vehicle index climbed 0.4 percent in July and another 0.4 percent in August, seasonally adjusted, yet remains 2.3 percent below where it stood twelve months earlier. New vehicle prices, meanwhile, are moving in a steadier, slower pattern of their own. For anyone shopping the used lot or renewing an auto policy this fall, the pattern is anything but uniform — some costs are still falling, others are climbing again.
A Used Car Market That Spent Years Cooling Off
Used car prices spent much of the past few years falling from the extraordinary highs of the pandemic-era shortage, when a lack of new vehicles pushed buyers into the used market and prices spiked well beyond normal. That cooling trend has continued into 2026 on a yearly basis, which is why the category can post two straight months of increases and still show a price decline compared with a year earlier — the starting point a year ago was simply higher than where the market sits today.
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Two Straight Months Of Increases, Yet Still Cheaper Than A Year Ago
The Bureau’s detailed price index table puts the used cars and trucks index at 184.580 in August, versus 188.960 in August of last year — a 2.3 percent decline before seasonal adjustment. That is despite two consecutive monthly increases: the seasonally adjusted index rose 0.4 percent in July and 0.4 percent again in August. Earlier in the year the index had mostly been falling or flat, down 0.4 percent in both February and March, essentially unchanged in April and May, and down another 0.2 percent in June — meaning the July-August pickup marks a real change in direction, not just noise.
New Vehicles Are Rising Slower, But Ownership Costs Are Mixed
New vehicle prices tell a calmer story, according to the Bureau’s Consumer Price Index Summary. The index rose 0.3 percent in August and is up just 0.6 percent over the full twelve months. Unlike used vehicles, new car prices have not swung between sharp declines and increases this year — the same report shows the new-vehicle index moving by a tenth of a percent or less in five of the past seven months, before ticking up slightly in July and August. The full cost of owning a car is moving in different directions at the same time: the same report shows the motor vehicle insurance index falling 0.8 percent in August after falling 0.3 percent in July, part of a 5.1 percent decline over the past twelve months, while motor vehicle maintenance and repair rose 1.1 percent in August alone and 5.2 percent over the year. Apparel prices, in the same report, rose 3.6 percent over the twelve months, and airline fares rose 23.4 percent — a reminder that a single inflation report can tell sharply different stories depending on which household expense is being measured.
A Falling Insurance Bill And A Rising Repair Bill, On The Same Car
The insurance decline is not a one-month blip. The Bureau’s detailed table puts the motor vehicle insurance index at 848.231 in August, down from 894.075 a year earlier and from 856.080 as recently as July — a 5.1 percent yearly drop built from three straight months of declines: 2.0 percent in June, 0.3 percent in July, and 0.8 percent in August. Underneath the single “maintenance and repair” line, the two halves of that category are moving at different speeds: motor vehicle maintenance and servicing, carrying a relative importance of 0.522 percent of the entire consumer basket, is up 7.9 percent over the year, while motor vehicle repair, at 0.407 percent, is up a comparatively smaller 2.6 percent. For a household paying $1,800 a year to insure a car and $400 a year on average for maintenance and repair, applying those percentages directly works out to roughly $95 saved on the insurance side against about $21 added on the repair side over the year — a net decline in the combined bill even before counting what happens to the vehicle’s purchase price itself.
Other pieces of owning a car moved in their own directions in August. Leased cars and trucks, weighted at 0.385 percent of the basket, are down 1.0 percent over the twelve months, while car and truck rental, at 0.162 percent, is up 3.5 percent over the year despite falling 4.8 percent in August alone — another category where the yearly trend and the latest month point opposite ways. Taken together, used cars (2.698 percent), new vehicles (3.756 percent), motor vehicle insurance (2.563 percent), and motor vehicle maintenance and repair (1.055 percent) make up the bulk of the “transportation commodities less motor fuel” group, which as a whole is down just 0.4 percent over the year — a modest headline number that hides insurance falling, repairs rising, and used and new vehicles moving in opposite directions underneath it.
Where Vehicles Sit Inside A Report That Kept Climbing
Set against the full report, used cars stand out for a reason beyond their own numbers: unlike new vehicles, shelter, or food — all still rising over twelve months even as their monthly pace slows — used cars and trucks remain one of the few major lines running negative year over year. The broader index, covering every category in the report, rose 0.4 percent in August and 3.4 percent over the same twelve months, according to the Bureau’s Consumer Price Index home page.
September’s Reading Is Six Weeks Away
All of the figures above are drawn from prices the Bureau collected through the end of August. Its published schedule puts the September release on October 14, when it will become clear whether the recent used-car uptick keeps building into fall or fades the way earlier swings did back in June.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
