Bucking current market trends to a degree, the average transaction price or ATP for new GMC vehicles bought during November 2023 climbed 7.8 percent year-over-year from November 2022, reaching $66,939 compared to the year-ago $62,109 ATP.
Big Red’s prices slipped somewhat from last month’s high, however, dropping 0.5 percent from their $67,281 peak according to research by Cox Automotive and Kelley Blue Book or KBB.
By contrast with GMC, the overall automotive market saw new-vehicle ATPs drop by 1.5 percent versus last year’s figure. Industry prices rose 0.6 percent relative to October’s ATP figures. For The General, average prices crept upward 0.8 percent overall while falling from October by 2.1 percent to November’s $52,671 ATP.
GMC was one of the four biggest gainers for November alongside Dodge, Ram, and Audi. Big Red also gained 10 percent during October 2023. Notably, two of those four brands have a sales mix that prominently features pickup trucks. Trucks had incentives well below 3 percent for the month, unlike the rest of the market where incentives climbed to levels not seen for years.
In fact, incentives rather than MSRP changes account for the overall decline in ATP across the automotive sector. As Rebecca Rydzewski, Cox research manager, pointed out, “dealers are seeing profits contract as inventory levels return to normal, and incentives are turned up to help stimulate sales.” This means that “consumers may feel some relief in vehicle prices and incentives as we close out 2023.”
MSRPs increased about 1 percent for the market, continuing an unbroken decade-long rise in prices, but this was masked by mushrooming incentives. Non-luxury brands such as GMC averaged 5-percent incentives, lower than the pre-pandemic 10.5 percent in November 2019, while luxury incentives were up 5.8 percent. Incentives themselves grew about 136 percent year-over-year.
GMC’s rising ATP is likely accounted for by its sales mix. Not only did trucks and SUVs have some of the lowest November incentives, but ATPs for full-size pickups such as the GMC Sierra, midsize trucks like the GMC Canyon, and full-size SUVs like the GMC Hummer EV SUV rose 3.7 percent, 1.4 percent, and 4.5 percent respectively.
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