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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Penny pinching is putting the used car business in a bind.

"A year ago, you would see average auction in Denver, 2,000 cars going through on a Wednesday. Now it's been 700-800 cars, it's tough," Chris Richards, the used car manager at Phil Long Hyundai said.

With more and more people holding onto their cars affordable, low mileage used cars are hard to come by.

The shortage is so bad, a used car you would have bought last year for $15,000 will now cost you about $16,500, 10 percent more.

"I think we've just been holding back on the purchase since 2007," Joey Baltrusch, who's looking to buy, said.

Baltrusch has been holding off on upgrading from his 16-year-old, 1995 Oldsmobile for a while.  He's decided to take the plunge and realized the price for used cars with 30,000-40,000 miles on it are almost the same as a new car right now.

"I think 'Cash for Clunkers' that happened a few years ago, liquidated the market out of all those cars that are affordable," Richards, the used car manager at Phil Long Hyundai said.

It's slim pickings for dealerships trying to stock up on inventory, the majority of what they're seeing are cars either a year old or 10 years old.

So if you've got a car you're thinking of trading in, now's the time to do it because the value is higher than usual.