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Buick Dealer Inventory Rises In October 2024

New Buick vehicles continued to accumulate on dealer lots during October 2024, with inventory increasing to 104 days supply for the Tri-Shield as compared to the U.S. national auto industry average of 85 days supply across all dealerships.

Notably, inventory of Buick vehicles is more than 50 percent above the level usually thought of as optimal – 60 days supply – by automakers, dealerships and analysts alike, per Cox Automotive research.

Buick inventory compared to other brands.

The backlog of unsold new vehicles from Buick has been increasing since the height of summer. Back in August, days supply for the brand was 89, which was itself a greater than 10-percent increase from the 80 days supply in inventory during July. At that time, the overall auto sector had 77 days supply at a typical dealership, meaning the Tri-Shield brand was already above average.

While it is only a rough guide to which models are selling fastest and in the highest numbers currently, and which are garnering less buyer interest, two nameplates are identifiable as having the smallest and largest days supply. The Buick Envista is selling well enough to have the lowest inventory in October, while the Buick Enclave had the highest.

Front three quarters view of the Buick Envista.

Inventories are climbing across the whole auto sector, while prices are staying above $47,000 – and, in fact, climbed above $48,000 in October – despite supply growth significantly outpacing demand. At the same time, days supply is highest for the most expensive models and lowest for the most affordable, with mid-range models having around 100 days supply on dealer lots.

The number of vehicles in inventory also rose above 3 million units for the first time in 12 months. According to Cox, this number is 29-percent higher than the total of new vehicles in dealership lineups back in the same month in 2023. This is in spite of a 13-percent rise in auto sales compared to October 2023, indicating that the influx of new vehicles is actually even more massive, since sales are taking a significant bite out of inventory totals.

Front three quarters view of the Buick Envision.

Cox notes that matching inventory and incentives – which have reached an average of 7.7 percent of ATP – is “a bit of a balancing act for automakers as they try to maintain discipline.” Despite the various pressures, auto prices are expected to stay historically high at least through the first few months of the new year.

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Comments

  1. I wonder if the upcoming tariffs will tank the sales of the Envision?

    Reply
  2. GM has mismanaged their inventory. There was a flood of 2024 Envisions coming in VERY late in the year when other makes were rolling out 2025 models. Now the dealers are sitting on a lot of what are essentially year old vehicles that people aren’t buying.

    Reply
  3. So, if GM really wants to sell Buicks, why would they put the largest selling Buick dealer out of business!?! Stillwater Motors in Stillwater, Minnesota was family owned for 102 years. When it was recently sold, the new owners were stripped of their Buick franchise and only allowed to sell Chevrolets. This dealership was the number one selling Buick dealership in the USA! Obviously we have idiots in charge at GM.

    Reply

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