By ERIC TINGWALLMAY 23, 2014  Used-car bargain hunters hoping to score a deal on one of the 2.6 million General Motors cars recalled for faulty ignition switches may find prices have proved more resilient than they expected.  Prices for used Chevrolet Cobalts have declined about $300 since the recall began making headlines in February, according to ALG, an analytics company that predicts residual values — what cars will be worth at the end of a lease. Yet ALG also says that drop is within the typical $700 fluctuation for used-car values, meaning the Cobalt’s decline could be related to other factors.  The notion of a Pontiac Solstice roadster as a cheap prescription for a midlife crisis, or a low-mileage Saturn Ion compact as a $2,000 bargain, is unlikely to become a reality.  “Anybody who is looking to exploit any potential loss in value for personal gain is going to find a tough situation,” said Eric Lyman, ALG’s vice president for industry insights.  Recalls generally have no measurable effect on resale values, though safety defects that attract widespread, prolonged media coverage can cause values to dip. “Driver fatalities and things that make front-page news, those do have a different impact, largely because their visibility is so much higher,” Mr. Lyman said. “Interestingly, what we see is that the impact of those recalls is very temporary.”  After the recalls of Ford Explorers with Firestone tires in 2000, and of Toyotas for unintended acceleration in 2009-10, used-car values rebounded within 12 months of the media coverage’s subsiding.  ALG tracks used-car prices through the wholesale auctions where dealers buy and sell vehicles. Before the unintended-acceleration recalls, the typical Toyota Camry sold for about $2,000 more than its competitors. During the height of the controversy, Camry prices dropped to an average of $400 above the competition. Mr. Lyman ascribes $1,000 of the $1,600 loss directly to the recalls and the subsequent publicity. The remaining $600 decrease is attributed to factors like the reputation and relative newness of competitive models.  In the case of G.M.’s recent woes, the recalled cars may have dodged serious depreciation because of their age. The already low prices of economy cars as much as 10 years old leave little room for discounting. Ten-year-old Chevy Cobalts and HHRs are worth roughly $5,000 today.  Newer and more desirable, the Solstice and Saturn Sky roadsters are selling for $10,000 to $15,000, but finding a great deal on a sporty car is even less likely. The two-seaters largely escaped the media spotlight because fewer were sold and they haven’t been implicated in fatal accidents tied to ignition switches.  Even if the prices of recalled cars are holding up, G.M. may face a different outcome in the courts. After Toyota’s unintended-acceleration recall, a $250 million settlement compensated owners who sold their cars from Sept. 1, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2010, for diminished values. While most of those payments were trivial — as little as $37.50 — certain models sold in specific months qualified for substantial payments. Owners of the 2007 Lexus LX 470 who sold in March 2010 received as much as $5,977.  Dozens of outstanding lawsuits against G.M. seek class-action status for loss of value because of the ignition-switch recall. G.M. has asked a federal court to dismiss those suits under the terms of its bankruptcy, which relieved the automaker of liabilities from incidents before July 10, 2009.  A version of this article appears in print on May 25, 2014, on page AU2 of the New York edition with the headline: Recalled-Car Bargains May Prove Elusive. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe
General Motors has recalled millions of cars because of an ignition problem. You’d think those cars would have strikingly fallen in value on the used-car market. Not really.