Following the typical December surge in sales across the U.S. auto market – aided by post-election positivity and rising incentives – the Buick new vehicle average transaction price (ATP) fell year-over-year in January 2025.
As revealed through data analyzed by Cox Automotive and Kelley Blue Book, the average Buick transaction price was $35,132 in January, a 4-percent drop from January 2024 and a 1.3-percent fall from December 2024.
Despite the overall rise in sales in prices in December, Buick ATP plunged by 7 percent year-over-year during that month as well. One possible culprit is the very high inventory levels the Tri-Shield brand has registered for months, with dealership inventory at a 128 days supply and climbing in November.
This inventory level is more than twice the 60 days supply considered optimal across the auto industry. Buick dealers may be offering incentives and cutting prices in an effort to clear out the mounting backlog of unsold vehicles, contributing to ongoing plunge of its ATP.
General Motors, the parent company of Buick, saw its ATP reach $52,980 for January 2025, rising 3.3 percent from a year ago but dropping 3.5 percent month-over-month. For the auto market as a whole, average prices fell 2.2 percent from December, a typical seasonal reaction after the usual year-end boom in vehicle – and particularly luxury vehicle – sales.
Whole-market auto prices still managed to climb 1.3 percent compared to January 2024, showing that the sales surge isn’t entirely out of steam. The industry average vehicle price in the U.S. was $48,641, while the number of vehicle units at dealerships was below 3 million, a threshold the market crossed in October and November before dipping to 2.88 million units at the end of December.
Incentives are still up, though down a little from their December peak. A year ago in January 2024, the average incentive was 5.6 percent of ATP, while it is currently 7.2 percent. The typical incentive was in 8 percent in December.
Cox executive analyst Erin Keating summed up by saying “after a surprisingly hot December, both new-vehicle sale volume and prices were lower in January as the market took a seasonal breather.”
Comments
Buick’s marketing is non existent. And brand identity is missing.
Squeaking/squealing brakes since first purchased 1 year ago and a problem known to Buick is one reason (in my opinion) Dealer lots are loaded. One Service writer even told me at the Buick dealership that all Corvette brakes SQUEAK, since I also have owned a Corvette since age 25. Never had a noise like this vehicle has.
My wife has a 2023 Buick Encore GX. We have been to two separate dealerships numerous times. They have installed new brake pads, but the breaks still continue to squeak.
The bland, god-awful looking front end they’ve saddled all four Buicks sold in the USA with doesn’t help sales one bit.
What do you expect? A four model lineup with one built in the US, one a 100% Chinese built and the other two built in South Korea which are their top sellers but are priced in the $30k to maybe $35k range. Except in China gm is starving Buick for product in the US and China gm business model has popped.