Heavy Discounts Loom As Dealer Lots Begin To Burst At The Seams With Inventory

For the first time in his 37 years working at New Jersey car dealerships, Larry Kull had to rent extra space to store unsold new Honda vehicles -- one of the latest signs that the record U.S. auto market is cooling.

Across dealer lots in America, inventory is piling up as automakers produce more cars than are being bought. Dealers had about 85 days worth of cars and trucks on hand at the beginning of February -- about 22 days more than at the beginning of 2017 and eight days more than a year earlier, according to Automotive News Data Center.

mre30 - 2/28/2017 3:13:59 PM

-2 Boost

Record auto sales? NOT

Dealership Channel 'Stuffed' ? YUP!

2017 is shaping up to be a bad year for automakers.

Fresh off of his move to shovel money at Carrier the AC company to keep some (< 1,000) jobs in Indiana, maybe Donald Trump will try and resurrect Obama's 'cash for clunkers' program? That was a singular disaster almost 10 years ago.

MDarringer - 2/28/2017 8:59:50 PM

0 Boost

Manufacturers count product shipped to dealers--whether the dealers want them or not--as sales even if said cars have no buyers.

The market was soft, so manufacturers cranked out product and attempted to sell them with lots of money on the hood to protect their volume, but that has produced a car glut.

There is a big glut on mid-sized sedans and on pickups to name two.

Allowing people to deduct 100% of the sales tax of a new car on their taxes would be a good idea.

MorePower - 3/1/2017 2:09:53 AM

0 Boost

Just in time for an interest rate increase. Good luck!

MDarringer - 3/1/2017 7:31:53 PM

+2 Boost

Only stupid people use bank financing these days. Manufacturers will still offer 0%.