The COVID-19 pandemic has been good news for Australia’s second-hand car market with prices jumping 35 percent last year. Moody’s Analytics says the increase was fuelled by limited supplies of new vehicles, fewer trade-ins and increased demand. “Australian used-vehicle prices experienced a year unlike any before,” it said in its analysis released on January 18. “This incredible jump in prices is made more improbable because it happened as the nation endured numerous lockdown orders, devastating job losses and the first recession in a generation.” The company said the pandemic’s impact on prices threw out relationships between traditional economic indicators, including unemployment. It said fears about the virus also caused people to shun public transport while the number of vehicles available for sale was reduced with lease contracts on many vehicles pushed out as people drove less. Sales of second-hand vehicles at auction fell about 20 percent in 2020 compared to …