New vehicles had been simply as reasonably priced in March as they had been in February. That’s outstanding information after a yr by which they steadily grew harder to afford.
Affordability isn’t simply measured by worth. The Cox Automotive/Moody’s Analytics Car Affordability Index measures the variety of weeks the typical earner would want to work to repay the typical new automotive. (Cox Automotive is the guardian firm of Kelley Blue E-book.)
The common American would have wanted to work 42.9 weeks to repay the typical new automotive in March.
Automotive costs fell barely in March, with the typical new automotive promoting for $45,927 – down from a peak of over $47,000 in December.
However different components labored towards patrons. Rates of interest elevated. Incentives fell. These mixed to boost the typical month-to-month cost to a report $691.
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New-vehicle affordability in March was a lot worse than a yr in the past, when costs had been decrease and incentives had been greater. The estimated variety of weeks of median earnings wanted to buy the typical new automobile in March was up 18% from final yr.
This story initially ran on KBB.com.
