If you break it down by city, the top 16 places to buy a used car in Michigan are all in the Metro Detroit area.
DETROIT - If you break it down by city, the top 16 places to buy a used car in Michigan are all in the Metro Detroit area.
That's according to data crunched by Autolist, a San Francisco-based firm that acts as an aggregate search engine for all used auto listings in the U.S.
Check out the top 15 cities in the state for most affordable used auto prices, and their difference compared to the average:
| Rank in State | City | Price Difference |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rochester Hills | -$466 |
| 2 | Warren | -$454 |
| 3 | Sterling Heights | -$450 |
| 4 | Farmington Hills | -$406 |
| 5 | Royal Oak | -$386 |
| 6 | Detroit | -$385 |
| 7 | Pontiac | -$384 |
| 8 | Troy | -$377 |
| 9 | Southfield | -$372 |
| 10 | Taylor | -$372 |
| 11 | Westland | -$321 |
| 12 | Dearborn Heights | -$320 |
| 13 | Roseville | -$315 |
| 14 | Novi | -$291 |
| 15 | Livonia | -$291 |
Alex Klein, Autolist's vice president of data science, said it makes sense that Metro Detroit cities dominate the list.
"What we saw across our study, is more densely populated areas ... they tend to have prices that are well below the state average," Klein said.
Klein added that as you have more auto dealerships in an area, there is more competition, and that typically drives prices down. However, after doing studies throughout the U.S., he said the glut of top-ranking cities in one metro area is "very unique to Detroit."
"Your metro area is so large and there are so many automobiles," he said.
You have to go to no. 17 before a city outside the Metro area is on the list, with Ann Arbor at $279 below the state average. Or, if you consider Ann Arbor part of Metro Detroit, then you have to go to no. 19, with Lansing at $242 below Michigan's average.
At the same time, if the data is broke down by county, Metro Detroit doesn't crack the top five.
Here are the rankings of most affordable counties to buy a car versus the state average:
| Rank in State | County | Price Difference |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leelanau | -$964 |
| 2 | Missaukee | -$728 |
| 3 | Antrim | -$565 |
| 4 | Lapeer | -$488 |
| 5 | Presque Isle | -$474 |
| 6 | Oakland | -$458 |
| 7 | Arenac | -$407 |
| 8 | Eaton | -$352 |
| 9 | Macomb | -$338 |
| 10 | Lenawee | -$328 |
| 11 | Wayne | -$322 |
| 12 | Sanilac | -$293 |
| 13 | Crawford | -$280 |
| 14 | St. Clair | -$278 |
| 15 | Washtenaw | -$263 |
Klein said the discrepancy is likely due to the geographic locations of automalls across different county lines.
"I would be interested to run the numbers of, if Detroit Metro is a county, my hunch would be it would be in the top five," he said.
Autolist also broke out just the city of Detroit versus the national average saying it ranks as the no. 99 most-affordable city in the U.S. with used car and truck prices $809 below the average.
So if you go shopping for a car or truck in Detroit, you may save money on the sticker price. Just don't expect to save any money once you have to insure the car.
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com, follow him on Twitter or find him on Facebook.