At the end of first-half 2022, the industry was still feeling the effects of the semiconductor microchip shortage that began in early 2021. Over the past 12 months, new-vehicle inventory on the ground and in transit was persistently stuck between roughly 1 million and 1.2 million units, about a third of the average level seen in 2018 and 2019. Dealers’ order books filled quickly, and many dealers are still working through the order backlogs they have built up over the past year. When vehicles arrived on dealer lots in the first half of the year, they sold quickly, and this will also likely be true for the rest of 2022 and into 2023. Still, despite the challenges of a newvehicle shortage, the average dealership has performed very well through first-half 2022.

With tight supplies of vehicles and high demand from consumers, manufacturers pulled back on incentive spending in the first half, and average incentive spending per unit fell each month through June. Average incentive spending has decreased from a record high of over $4,700 per unit in April 2020 to record lows of under $1,000 per unit in June 2022. The cuts to incentive spending, OEM production mix and strong demand from consumers pushed new-vehicle average transaction prices to record highs as well—just shy of $46,000 through June 2022. The shortage of new vehicles caused used-vehicle wholesale and retail pricing to hit record highs near the end of 2021 as many consumers and fleet buyers switched to the used market. While used-vehicle wholesale prices have fallen slightly from their recent highs, we expect that used-vehicle values will continue to be well above their pre-pandemic levels for as long as the industry is dealing with the chip shortage and its limiting effects on new-vehicle inventories.

To improve the breadth of information provided in NADA Data, we offer a section focusing on the new- and used-vehicle consumer, with in-depth data from Experian. These stats include average monthly payment, average loan term, leasing and more.