The month in the market · September 2026

In brief

1. 1Exits ran at 1,053 cars a day over 28 recorded days, down 24.3% on the previous calendar month (1,392 a day over 19 recorded); at least 23,708 of the month's 48,168 carry the seller's own proof of sale.
2. 2Dealers cut 68,897 cars' prices against 10,236 rises: 1.56 cuts a day per 100 cars live, down 23.1% on the previous calendar month; the median cut was $1,000.
3. 3ACT's median used ask moved most, up 8.5% to $24,950 over 1,837 cars; QLD, NT held within half a percent.
4. 4Ford Ranger led the market out with 5,212 proved exits, up 15.0% per recorded day; Hyundai i30 rose fastest among the twelve, up 20.9% per recorded day.
5. 5Electric cars' median used ask closed at $42,990 over 3,870 cars, unchanged; their proved exits down 15.7% per recorded day.
6. 6The cars that sold had been advertised a median 33 days, over 19,809 proved exits with a published age, against 35 in the previous calendar month (11,034 cars).

computed from the figures below, each with its count; nothing is a forecast

Against the period before

Against the previous calendar month, 1 Aug to 31 Aug: 28 of 30 days recorded this period against 19 of 31 before, so flows are compared per recorded day. Flows are summed over recorded days, levels read on the last; a comparison the windows cannot bear is left blank with its reason.

Median used asking price at close: written daily since 2026-09-05; only one window has it.

Per recorded day against the previous calendar month: exits down 24.3%, proved exits down 25.3%, cuts down 19.2%, rises down 4.8%; cars live at close up 5.1%; median days to sell down 5.7%.

Day by day

Cars and advertisements separately wherever both exist; they differ by about half again. 2 days in this period recorded nothing and are absent below rather than interpolated: 2026-09-03, 2026-09-12.

Cars proved sold: cars whose exit the seller's own page proved: its SOLD text, or a 404/410. All exits: cars that left, recounted on 2026-09-03 against the live listings of that day --- the wider figure, and the one to read with care: it was recounted after the period closed, so a car that has since been re-advertised has left it. Cars cut: cars repriced down, one per car per day. A dash is a day recorded before these columns existed, not a zero.

The month week by week · cars that left the market

cars, one per vehicle, summed by UTC week from Monday; the first and last weeks hold only the days inside the period, and a hollow bar is a week not fully recorded

How long the period’s sales had been advertised

26,794 used and demo cars proved sold in the period, of which 19,809 publish the seller’s own listing date and are what this is measured over; the median is 33 days. Unproved exits are excluded: a page that went quiet is not a sale, and a days-to-sell figure built from both would be measuring two different things.

By state

Levels are the last recorded day; flows are the period’s total. A state gaining watched cars may just be gaining yards.

“over” is the cars whose price the median was taken across, which is fewer than the cars standing. The proved column sums to the same total as the day-by-day table above, because both are written in one pass under one rule. The cut column does not: cars repriced down IN THAT STATE. A car advertised in two states is in both, so this column does not sum to the market total.

What the prices in this report are

As at 2026-09-30, 99,682 live prices were quoted drive-away, 47,357 excluding government charges, and 91,962 did not say. Every median above is a median across that mix.

The corpus behind these figures

Spotlot monitored 224,506 listings on 2026-09-01 and 233,979 on 2026-09-30 (157,592 physical cars after syndication). listings monitored by Spotlot, which grows with coverage; not a count of the Australian market.

What this report withholds, and why

• new to market: first seen during a coverage ramp is discovery, not listing; withheld until coverage stabilises
• median ask movement: a median over a sample whose size moves with coverage measures composition; withheld until a week's n holds still

What left, by model

the twelve models with most proved exits; stock and its median used ask on the last recorded day, cuts and rises once per car per day

Electric share by state

electric cars as a share of cars with a stated powertrain, on the first and last recorded day of the period; states with 200 or more stated cars