The significant backlog of new Buick vehicles that saw inventory rise as high as a 138 days supply in January 2025 is being rapidly cleared by people buying ahead of tariff price hikes, dropping to an 82 days supply by the end of March 2025.
This 33.3-percent plunge from the 123 days on Buick dealer lots in February exceeds the reduction in average U.S. dealership stock from an 89 days to a 70 days supply over the same period, as revealed by Cox Automotive.
Even the frenzy of optimistic year-end buying in December 2024 failed to significantly dent Buick inventory, which remained at a 120 days supply despite high demand. The current drop to an 82 days supply spotlights just how intense the buying is ahead of President Trump‘s tariffs having their full effect on auto industry pricing.
The Buick Envision is the model with the highest current day supply in inventory. At the bottom, the Buick Enclave and Buick Encore GX are approximately tied for the low figure of dealer lot stock, while the Buick Envista is somewhere in the middle of the Tri-Shield’s inventory levels.
As noted above, U.S. auto industry average new vehicle inventory has dropped to 70 days, getting close to the optimal level of a 60 days supply. March began with 2.99 million new vehicles at dealerships and ended with 2.69 million, showing how strongly sales outpaced new shipments.
Prices barely budged at this point in time, with a 1.9-percent increase compared to March 2024 figures. The cost of a typical vehicle even declined slightly, by 0.6 percent, compared to February. However, the reprieve is only temporary given the incoming price spike expected from the 25-percent tariffs on foreign autos and many imported car components.
Cox analysis notes “starting in Q2, the tighter supply and higher prices will likely mirror the conditions we saw in 2021, when the chip shortage affected global vehicle production.” This includes not only the effect of lessened imported cars but also the reduction in imported parts needed to complete U.S.-built vehicles.
Comments
People are snapping up what they can while they can considering ma Barra and Buick seem to be Hell bent on imports… sadly 🙁
That’s because of higher profits and QUALITY .