New figures from the fee-free car auction website, part of car supermarket Motorpoint, revealed prices had fallen to £2,983 last month after several months of steady rises.

Auction4Cars said it had enjoyed a strong start to 2011, selling almost 5,000 cars during the first quarter of they year, with traffic to the website last month up more than 15% on the same time last year.

Neil Prescott, group disposal manager at Motorpoint, said: ‘This is a clear indication that used car prices are finally starting to level
off, as widely predicted, after the upwards trends of the last few months.’