Executive Dealer Reporting

Top Headlines We Are Reading At Foundation

• July 2023 New Vehicle Sales Estimates from JD Power
  •   New Vehicle Sales in July UP YoY down MoM
    • Total new-vehicle sales for July 2023, including retail and non-retail transactions, are projected to reach 1,320,982 units, a 21.5% increase from July 2022 but a –3.9% DECREASE from June’s 1,320,982
     Year-to-date sales UP but still below pre-2020 covid levels
    • July year-to-date total sales will be slightly more than 9.0 million units—an increase of 14.4% from a year ago—but still below pre-pandemic sales levels, which were north of 9.8 million.
     Vehicles still moving off lots quick, but not as quick as last year
    • July, 44% of vehicles are projected to be sold within 10 days of their arrival at the dealership, which is down from the peak of 57% in March 2022. The average time that a new vehicle spends in the dealer’s possession before being sold is expected to be 28 days, up from 19 days a year ago, but still less than half the pre-pandemic average of 70 days.
      Total Retail Profit Per unit DOWN YoY but 2x more than July 2019
    • total retailer profit per unit—which includes grosses, finance and insurance income—is expected to reach $3,533 in July.
    •  28.3% lower than a year ago July 2022, but 2x more than July 2019.
    • Reason for decline? Fewer vehicles are being sold for prices higher than MSRP. July 2023  28.7% of new vehicles are projected to be sold above MSRP, which is down from 49.3% in July 2022
• REPLAY: COX Automotive 2023 Mid-Year Review 
  • Foundation Takeaway: New vehicle sales are outpacing beginning of the year forecasts with COX now estimating 15.0M new vehicle sales for 2023 (up from 14.1M forecast from start of the year) fueled by 74% increase in available supply. On the opposite side used sales are expected to be flat at 35.7M units with used supply dropping 10%. EVs continue to be a hot topic with 50 launches upcoming in the next year and have a record share of 6.5% of total new vehicle sales. With EV supplies increasing and prices decreasing.

• Experian Automotive Trends and State of the Automotive Finance Market Report (released June 8)
  •  Experian releases there quarterly Automotive Trends and State of the Automotive Finance Market Report in back-t0-back weeks in June recapping Q1 2023.
    • Quick hits on Automotive Trends: New Vehicle Registrations in Q1 2023 were up 8.8% YoY and used vehicles were down 2.2%. An interesting piece on how avg. age of vehicle on road increased because of less new vehicle being sold NOT because of vehicles lasting longer (watch webinar for explaination). The sweet spot for automotive service opportunity continues to grow with a record 104M vehicles are in the sweet-spot for fixed ops needs (cars between 5-10 years old)
    • Quick hits State of the Automotive Finance Market Report Average new vehicle loan rate is 6.8% in Q1 2023 vs. 4.1% in  Q1 2022 with the average new vehicle monthly loan payment being $725 up 10% from $650 a year earlier.

• Shift Digital – 2023 DIGITAL AUTOMOTIVE SHOPPING TRENDS
  • Foundation Takeaway: Website traffic was observed to be up 20% while leads are down 20% across websites Shift Digital oversees in their program. Hypothesis that this was caused by increase in inventory — less reaching out to see if vehicle are available — while traffic is up as people cross-shop dealers with more options to explore with increased inventory. Foundation has observed similar trends in dealer traffic. Recommend to scroll through the article for additional insights on website CTAs for dealers.