New vehicle inventory, in general, has remained at some alarmingly high levels for months now, even amid strong sales. This phenomenon doesn’t apply to every brand, per se, but rather, there are some big variances between them. This continued to be the case in November 2024, as new Ford inventory levels remained among the highest in the industry – a trend that has perpetuated for months now – though certain other brands, like Honda, Toyota, and Subaru – are seemingly doing a much better job of keeping inventory levels at a more reasonable level.
According to new data from Cox Automotive, new Ford inventory levels were once again higher than the national average of an 85 days’ supply, coming in at a 125 days’ supply. That ranked Ford near the top of all automotive brands in the U.S., behind only Jaguar, Lincoln, Mini, Jeep, Ram, and Buick. However, this is nothing new for The Blue Oval, which stood at a 105 days’ supply in August, a 112 days’ supply in September, and a 119 days’ supply in October, meaning that things have only gotten worse over the past month. Meanwhile, the industry average stayed completely flat after ending October at an 85 days’ supply of inventory, too.
This can largely be attributed to another sales increase last month, this time, by 6.5 percent or 67,000 units more than October, which easily offsets an 8,700 unit jump in inventory to 3.15 million units. However, new vehicle inventory in the U.S. has remained above the three million mark since the onset of October, and November’s tally is the highest of the 2024 calendar year thus far – though also 11 percent lower than December 2019.
As we can see here, domestic automakers continue to struggle with high inventory levels while Japanese brands are faring much better. According to Cox Automotive, hybrids, compact crossovers/SUVs, and compact passenger cars are selling at a faster pace than other segments these days, which are categories that Toyota and Honda have historically performed well in. In fact, the Toyota RAV4, Camry, and Honda CR-V were three of the top five best sellers in November and have an average supply of 35 days, far below industry average. The average listing price of those three models was $36,716, which is also well below the industry average of $48,978.
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