High prices, interest rates, fading buyer incentives all dent new car purchasing

Several carmakers reported soft U.S. sales in the third quarter. General Motors’ sales were down 2% compared to the same period last year. Toyota’s sales slipped over 5%.

Partly to blame: high prices, and high interest rates on auto loans. According to data this week from Edmunds, average loan rates for new vehicles were over 7% in the third quarter, putting a new car out of reach for many buyers.

Typical car shoppers only buy a new vehicle every six years or so, said Jessica Caldwell at Edmunds. So drivers shopping now are in for some sticker shock.

“New vehicle prices are, you know, on average [$10,000], $11,000 more than what they were back then,” she said. “So for the average person, prices have gone up considerably.”

And the incentives carmakers sometimes offer, like zero-interest financing for a few years, are harder to come by. 

“The fact that interest rates have been, you know, a bit higher makes those incentives just more costly for automakers,” Caldwell said.

After the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut, that could start to change. 

But it may also set up two distinct groups of recent car buyers, says Karl Brauer at iSeeCars.com.

“People who are stuck in high interest loans and they can’t really get out of them easily, and may have to let the car go and or take a hit on their credit rating if they end up underwater,” he said.

In the other group: Folks who were able to wait for rates, and prices, to drop.