TYLER, Texas — When COVID hit, it completely changed the car industry. Dean Cagle, a Sales Consultant at House of Cars in Tyler, has worked in the business for 45 years. In the past few months, prices have shot up and the supply of cars have dwindled.
"It started about four or five months ago, really the steady upward climb," Cagle said.
Both customers and dealerships are feeling the effects.
Toby Troquille bought a truck just a few weeks ago.
"House of Cars is always very competitive but it seems to me the prices are going up across the board," he said.
"Cars are in such short supply," Cagle added. "Some of it's because the new car dealers don't have the inventory they used to have and so they have to hang on to the trade-ins that they can get and so those cars are not available for independent used car dealers."
Cagle says a car he sold for $10,000 last year would be around 20% more expensive today.
"I'd say in this area, it'd probably be 12-thousand," he said.
According to the Lilamax Texas Business Report, researchers at UBS found that used-car prices shot up around 8-9%.