News

Cars.com Projects Year-Over-Year Decrease in April Average Transaction Price, Increase in Incentive Spending
General Motors Closes Month with Highest ATP, Up 5% Over April 2013

CHICAGO, April 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com, the leading online resource for buying and selling new and used cars and a comprehensive digital marketing resource for car dealerships and manufacturers, estimated today that April's average transaction price (ATP) for new light vehicle sales in the United States was $29,810, up 0.4 percent ($126) from March and down 2.8 percent ($864) from April 2013.

"Continued weak sales in the full size truck segment caused the industry average transaction price to drop in April, compared to this time last year," said Jesse Toprak, chief analyst for Cars.com. "Going against the declining average, General Motors, Chrysler and Volkswagen actually experienced healthy increases in ATPs, with General Motors recording their highest ATP of 2014 despite negative publicity created by recent recalls."

Incentive spending in April is projected to be down 4.9 percent ($134) over March, but up 1.6 percent ($41) over April 2013. The average incentive for light vehicles this month was $2,580, with Honda showing the highest incentive spending levels since November 2012 and Nissan and Toyota showing the lowest since September 2013.

"Year-over-year incentive spending is still climbing quietly, and we expect overall incentive levels to continue to increase through the end of summer due to relatively high inventory levels," said Toprak.

Manufacturer

April 2014 Forecast Transaction Price

March 2014 Transaction Price

April 2013 Transaction Price

Percent Change April 2013 to April 2014

Percent Change March 2014 to April 2014

Chrysler Group

$       30,781

$       30,396

$       29,769

3.4%

1.3%

Ford

$       31,412

$       31,507

$       32,798

-4.2%

-0.3%

GM

$       34,604

$       34,256

$       32,940

5.1%

1.0%

Honda

$       25,618

$       25,762

$       26,841

-4.6%

-0.6%

Hyundai/Kia

$       22,501

$       22,485

$       22,514

-0.1%

0.1%

Nissan

$       24,702

$       24,896

$       27,612

-10.5%

-0.8%

Toyota

$       28,139

$       28,201

$       28,785

-2.2%

-0.2%

Volkswagen

$       36,027

$       36,486

$       33,806

6.6%

-1.3%

Industry Total

$       29,810

$       29,684

$       30,674

-2.8%

0.4%

 

Manufacturer

April 2014 Forecast Incentives

March 2014 Incentives

April 2013 Incentives

Percent Change April 2013 to April 2014

Percent Change March 2014 to April 2014

Chrysler Group

$         3,042

$         3,294

$         3,392

-10.3%

-7.7%

Ford

$         3,026

$         3,238

$         2,922

3.6%

-6.5%

GM

$         3,548

$         3,568

$         3,785

-6.3%

-0.6%

Honda

$         1,946

$         1,854

$         1,604

21.3%

5.0%

Hyundai/Kia

$         1,895

$         2,078

$         1,382

37.1%

-8.8%

Nissan

$         2,117

$         2,509

$         2,165

-2.2%

-15.6%

Toyota

$         1,789

$         1,956

$         1,571

13.9%

-8.5%

Volkswagen

$         2,530

$         2,541

$         2,477

2.1%

-0.4%

Industry Total

$          2,580

$          2,714

$          2,539

1.6%

-4.9%

ABOUT CARS.COM

Cars.com is an award-winning online destination for car shoppers that offers information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. Cars.com offers thousands of new and used vehicle listings, consumer reviews, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and many other tools to take the drama out of car shopping. Cars.com puts millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures LLC.

SOURCE Cars.com

For further information: Thomas Muellner, tmuellner@cars.com, 312.601.5635