Average transaction price for new Cadillac vehicles remained stable in March 2024 despite an overall downward trend in ATP for the U.S. auto market as a whole, with its $72,539 ATP up 0.30 percent year-over-year and down 1.51 percent month-over-month.
Similar to the Cadillac brand, GM’s ATP as a whole was stable for the month at $51,591, increasing 0.73 percent compared to March 2023 and falling 0.39 percent relative to the previous month (February 2024), per the research of Cox Automotive and Kelley Blue Book.
Cadillac and most of the other General Motors brands experienced mostly unchanged prices while the U.S. auto market overall saw new-vehicle ATPs decline somewhat more during March 2024. The typical new vehicle in the United States sold for $47,218, 2.71 percent less than in March 2023 and 0.95 percent lower than in February.
This decline comes despite carmaker’s continued focus on high-margin luxury brands and expensive models, which are resulting in higher car prices overall for American consumers. Cox reports that approximately 275 major car models were offered for sale in the U.S. in March, but that only two of these were priced at less than $20,000, and only 8 models at less than $25,000.
The decline of new-vehicle ATPs in the general car market was largely due to incentives, while Cadillac offered less incentives than many brands. Incentive spending rose 102 percent year-over-year to an average of $3,121, matching high incentive levels last seen in 2021. Incentives as percent of the ATP increased from 3.2 percent in March 2023 and 5.9 percent in February 2024 to 6.6 percent in March 2024.
Luxury vehicles such as Cadillac generally had higher incentives in March than mass-market models and brands. Despite the falling average transaction price, Cox does not expect significant gains in affordability in the American auto market, with executive analyst Erin Keating noting “historically high interest rates and associated inflation, combined with an ever-widening deficit of available vehicles at lower price points” will make lower-priced cars difficult for consumers to find.
Despite all these factors, 2024 is expected to be the best sales year in the U.S. since the pre-COVID days of 2019, with a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 15.5 million car sales projected.
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