Hottest-Selling Cars These Days Are Used

Some of the hottest-selling cars in the country are not in dealers new car showrooms. They're in the used car lots next door.

Clean, recent-model used cars are in high demand. As a result, they're in short supply and prices are soaring much faster than new car prices.

Consumers paid about 9 percent more in May for similar used cars than they did a year earlier. Prices on comparable new cars rose 2.3 percent, says Chrysler economist Donald Hilty.

"Prices are going up because (dealers) know if they've got a good, clean used car, they're not going to give it away," says Gart Sutton, an expert on auto retailing. "They can't replace it.

Some models are defying conventional wisdom that says a new car begins losing value as soon as it rolls off the lot.

The retail price of a 1992 four-door Saturn SL1 has jumped $450 since January, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association's used car guide. That model's average used price of $10,225 is about 14 percent higher than the base price was for the new version last year.

"That price should be dropping every month," says Wallace Lowenfield, owner of a Saturn dealership in El Paso, Tex. "Instead, it's going up."

At the higher end, a 1992 Lexus SC 300 sells for an average $33,325, about 4 percent more than its base price as a new car last year, according to NADA.

About 25 million used cars and trucks were sold last year, Hilty estimates, nearly twice the 13.1 million new cars sold.

Some popular used cars that are actively sought include the 1989-90 Honda Accord, 1989-90 Acura Integra, 1990-91 Oldsmobile Cutlass and 1990-91 Mercury Sable.

But after three years of recession and slow recovery, the used car market is picked over.

On the other hand, rising used car prices often led to higher new car sales, Hilty says, as the price gap narrows and consumers discover they can get more on trade-ins.

ROLL UP YOUR TIRE MILEAGE

Stop taking your tires for granted. Here are some keys to extending their life, maximizing gasoline mileage and ensuring a safe ride:

-- Don't mix radial tires with any other type of tire. Don't over-inflate tires - it can damage them.

-- Don't under-inflate tires - they'll wear out sooner. Check your spare often to ensure that it is properly inflated. Avoid aggressive driving - fast starts, screeching stops and squealing turns.

-- Don't drive on a spare unless it's an emergency.

FLAT THROUGH 12 STATES

Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. demonstrated its Run Flat tire technology by driving a deflated tire 2,800 miles from Detroit and back as part of Car and Driver magazine's 10th annual One Lap of America.

The tires were placed on a Corvette, which traveled at legal speeds through 12 states with the right front tire completely deflated.

Car Briefs copy provided by Times news services