New-vehicle inventory days’ supply held steady in the mid-to-high 30s during the summer and is showing signs of increasing. In August, days’ supply was 43% higher than it was in the same timeframe of 2021, when inventory shortages first started to impact the market. Still, with roughly 1.2 million units in inventory in the U.S., new-vehicle inventory remains significantly below levels seen in 2020 and 2019. In the face of tight inventory and high prices, new-vehicle sales remain depressed, averaging just 1.1 million units per month in 2022. For comparison, sales in the first eight months of 2019 averaged 1.4 million per month.
Hyundai, Land Rover, Honda and Kia continue to show the most price strength in the market, transacting between 5-and-9% over sticker last month. Ram, Volvo, Lincoln, Buick, and the smaller Italian brands Alfa Romeo and Fiat showed the least price strength, selling 1% or more below MSRP in August. Understandably, the brands with the lowest price strength also have the highest days’ supply of vehicles.
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