Market Adjustment Pricing for New Vehicles triples as vehicle inventory grows 50 percent year-over-year

ZeroSum "State of the Dealer" Report Shows New Vehicle Inventory Settling in Near 3 Million Units

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Sept. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Average market adjustment pricing, which measures discounts and incentives that are visible to consumers on dealer websites, more than tripled for new vehicles in the past year as inventories have grown by more than 50 percent. The findings are part of ZeroSum's monthly State of the Dealer report for August.

In August 2023, the average market adjustment (dealer marketed price vs. MSRP) was -$532.00 compared to -$1,836.00 in August 2024 as available new vehicle inventory grew from 1.96 million units in August 2023 to 2.95 million in August 2024. While vehicle movement reached a 12-month high of 1.2 million units in August 2024, growth did not keep pace with inventory. Vehicle movement jumped 16 percent from 1.03 million units in August 2023.

"The disparity in growth between inventory and vehicle movement in the past year is putting more pressure on dealers to rely on incentives to move new vehicles off of lots," said Jeff Englishmen. "Market Adjustment provides insight into how much pricing pressure there is in the marketplace. Dealers are having to be increasingly aggressive to support those sales compared to a year ago."

ZeroSum predicts that September vehicle movement will fall slightly to 1.18 million units. With inventory likely to stay near the 3-million-unit plateau, reliance on incentives is likely to stay prominent in September.
Used and certified vehicle trends point to an improving health picture, with vehicle movement and turn rates heading higher in the current period:

• Used vehicle turn rates were at 69 percent in August 2023 and grew slightly to 72 percent in August 2024.
• Used vehicle inventory grew modestly from 1.77 million in August 2023 to 1.83 million in August 2024.
• Certified used vehicle turn rates were 83 percent in August 2024 compared to 88 percent in August 2024.
• Certified used vehicle inventory was stable year over year (195,000 units in August 2023 compared to 196,000 units in August 2024), although this was the first month Certified inventory dipped below 200,000 since October 2023.

Lower pricing year-over-year on used car vehicles appears to be helping that sector, moving from $28,993 to $26,429 from August 2023 to August 2024. This is likely contributing to the Market Adjustment pressure seen on the new car side.

ZeroSum is an automotive retail agency that provides cutting-edge inventory-based digital marketing solutions tailored to dealers. The State of the Dealer report is the first and premier data source for the new, used, and certified pre-owned automotive market.

Click here to download ZeroSum's entire September State of the Dealer Report, including vehicle movement, turn rate, days-to-move, inventory, and pricing trends for new, used, and certified vehicles. 

About ZeroSum

ZeroSum is an industry leader in software, marketing, and data. Powered by its SaaS platform, MarketAI, ZeroSum is simplifying and modernizing automotive marketing by leveraging artificial intelligence, data, and scaling ability to acquire new customers. ZeroSum is the first and only company that matches consumer demand with automotive data in real-time for dealer marketing efficiency. For more information, visit www.zerosum.ai