SANTA MONICA, Calif. — TrueCar.com, the authority on new car pricing, trends and forecasts, estimated today that the average transaction price for light vehicles in the United States was $29,539 in August 2011, up $388 (1.3 percent) from August 2010 and down $19 (0.1 percent) from July 2011.
“Consumer confidence, the fluctuating stock market and Hurricane Irene really dampened August sales,” said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insights for TrueCar.com. “Transaction prices have now declined the last three months after six months of increases, but we’re still near record high prices for new cars.”
| Transaction Pricing Forecast | ||||||
| Manufacturer | August 2011 Transaction Price | July 2011 Transaction Price | August 2010 Transaction Price | Percent Change August 2010 to August 2011 | Percent Change July 2011 to August 2011 | |
| Chrysler (Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Ram) | $28,524 | $28,541 | $28,397 | 0.4% | -0.1% | |
| Ford (Ford, Lincoln) | $32,456 | $32,547 | $31,337 | 3.6% | -0.3% | |
| GM (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC) | $33,371 | $33,629 | $33,351 | 0.1% | -0.8% | |
| Honda (Acura, Honda) | $25,700 | $25,766 | $24,926 | 3.1% | -0.3% | |
| Hyundai/Kia | $19,238 | $19,133 | $18,646 | 3.2% | 0.5% | |
| Nissan (Nissan, Infiniti) | $27,261 | $27,397 | $27,084 | 0.7% | -0.5% | |
| Toyota (Lexus, Scion, Toyota) | $25,691 | $25,655 | $25,297 | 1.6% | 0.1% | |
| Industry | $29,539 | $29,558 | $29,151 | 1.3% | -0.1% | |
In addition, TrueCar.com estimated that the average incentive for light-vehicles was $2,663 in August 2011, down $109 (3.9 percent) from August 2010 and up $78 (3.0 percent) from July 2011.
| Incentive Spending Forecast | ||||||
| Manufacturer | August 2011 Incentives | July 2011 Incentives | August 2010 Incentives | Percent Change August 2010 to August 2011 | Percent Change July 2011 to August 2011 | |
| Chrysler (Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Ram) | $3,511 | $3,419 | $3,719 | -5.6% | 2.7% | |
| Ford (Ford, Lincoln) | $2,722 | $2,680 | $2,969 | -8.3% | 1.6% | |
| GM (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC) | $3,207 | $3,190 | $3,485 | -8.0% | 0.5% | |
| Honda (Acura, Honda) | $2,101 | $2,079 | $2,275 | -7.6% | 1.1% | |
| Hyundai/Kia | $1,361 | $1,277 | $1,840 | -26.0% | 6.6% | |
| Nissan (Nissan, Infiniti) | $2,903 | $2,618 | $3,104 | -6.5% | 10.9% | |
| Toyota (Lexus, Scion, Toyota) | $2,405 | $2,353 | $2,038 | 18.0% | 2.2% | |
| Industry | $2,663 | $2,584 | $2,772 | -3.9% | 3.0% | |
TrueCar.com estimated that the ratio of incentives to average transaction price for light-vehicles was 9.0 percent in August 2011, down from 9.5 percent in August 2010 and up from 8.7 percent in July 2011.
| Ratio of Incentives to Average Transaction Price | ||||||
| Manufacturer | August 2011 Incentives/Avg. Transaction Price | July 2011 Incentives/ Avg. Transaction Price | August 2010 Incentives/ Avg. Transaction Price | Percent Change August 2010 to August 2011 | Percent Change July 2011 to August 2011 | |
| Chrysler (Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Ram) | 12.3% | 12.0% | 13.1% | -0.8% | 0.3% | |
| Ford (Ford, Lincoln) | 8.4% | 8.2% | 9.5% | -1.1% | 0.2% | |
| GM (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC) | 9.6% | 9.5% | 10.4% | -0.8% | 0.1% | |
| Honda (Acura, Honda) | 8.2% | 8.1% | 9.1% | -1.0% | 0.1% | |
| Hyundai/Kia | 7.1% | 6.7% | 9.9% | -2.8% | 0.4% | |
| Nissan (Nissan, Infiniti) | 10.6% | 9.6% | 11.5% | -0.8% | 1.1% | |
| Toyota (Lexus, Scion, Toyota) | 9.4% | 9.2% | 8.1% | 1.3% | 0.2% | |
| Industry | 9.0% | 8.7% | 9.5% | -0.5% | 0.3% | |
For additional data on incentives and transaction prices, please visit the TrueCar Truth Blog.
TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive solutions provider focused on changing how cars are sold by providing a significantly better customer experience while helping qualified dealer partners to gain incremental market share and reduce costs. TrueCar.com is a transparent, visual publisher of new car transaction data. TrueCar.com price reports help both dealers and consumers to agree on the parameters of a fair deal by providing an accurate, comprehensive and simple understanding of what others actually paid for the identically equipped new car over the last 30 days both locally and nationally. TrueCar, Inc. works with a national network of nearly 5,000 Certified Dealers that provide up-front, no-haggle, competitive pricing to assist some of the nation’s largest and most well respected membership and service organizations to meet the auto buying needs of their members and customers. These partnerships include American Express, AAA, USAA and more than 60 others. Collectively these audiences represent over 1M in-market customers each month. TrueCar, Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and has offices in San Francisco. The company was founded in 2005 and has been profitable since 2009. With nearly 200 percent year-over-year growth TrueCar has driven over 300,000 sales and is developing a suite of transaction oriented products and services centered on transparency and radical clarity as a result of comprehensively analyzing market data and information.
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About TrueCar Data
TrueCar obtains data directly from numerous sources including automotive dealers, technology companies, data aggregators, and analytics companies within the automotive space. We also acquire vehicle configuration data, customer and dealer incentives data, financing and loan data, vehicle registration and insurance data, and much, much more. TrueCar is insatiable about data with our goal to find 100% of all purchase transactions, even if that means finding the same transaction multiple times from multiple sources within the car-buying ecosystem. Our data is among the most timely and comprehensive in the industry, as we are able to process most car sales within a week of the actual sales date, and have a substantial fraction on the site within 48 hours of the actual sale. TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.
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