Edmunds Price Index (EPI) Reveals Average Vehicle Sold at Nearly $5,000 Below Sticker Price, Record-Setting Discounts on SUVs

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 16, 2004 -- Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, reported today that the Edmunds Price Index for new vehicles (EPI-N) (January 2002 = 100) increased slightly, from 98.6 in June to 98.7 in July. The average discount from MSRP was a record $4,982, or 16.8% of MSRP.

  
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In July, the sales-weighted average new vehicle sticker price was $29,746, $525 higher than in June 2004 and $756 higher than in July 2003. The sales-weighted average net price, which is transaction price less incentives, was $24,764, $263 higher than in June 2004 and $585 higher than in July 2003.

"New models are being introduced at higher price points, but the competitiveness of the market is dramatically pushing down net prices, resulting in a record average discount," said Dr. Jane Liu, Vice President of Data Analysis for Edmunds.com.

In July, minivans saw the largest increase in their EPI-N at 1.7%, followed by large cars at 1.1% and compact cars at 0.6%.

"Recent sales have been particularly strong for minivans and compact cars, even considering that summer is typically their high-volume sales season," commented Dr. Liu.

All SUV segments -- even luxury SUVs, which traditionally have generally been immune to most of the issues that have affected SUV popularity -- experienced record-setting discounts in July.

   Large SUV
   Average MSRP: $42,584
   Average net price: $33,121
   Average discount from MSRP to net price: 22.2%

   Midsize SUV
   Average MSRP: $30,667
   Average net price: $25,218
   Average discount from MSRP to net price: 17.8%

   Compact SUV
   Average MSRP: $24,282
   Average net price: $20,989
   Average discount from MSRP to net price: 13.6%

   Luxury SUV
   Average MSRP: $48,586
   Average net price: $43,725
   Average discount from MSRP to net price: 10.0%

Edmunds.com analysts also measure the average number of days it takes to sell vehicles after they arrive at dealerships, or "days-to-turn." In July, the average was 72 days, compared to 69 in June 2004 and 73 in July 2003. Of all brands, Mitsubishi had the longest days-to-turn, 111, followed by Jaguar, 108 days. For the third consecutive month, Scion had the shortest inventory turnaround, 14 days, followed closely by Mini, 23 days.

Similar in purpose to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the EPI-N measures the average changes in retail prices for new vehicles with fixed options over time in order to analyze trends. Edmunds.com also calculates and reports a wide range of data including transaction prices and net prices of vehicles by country of origin, manufacturer, make, model and vehicle segment.

About Edmunds.com, Inc.

Edmunds.com is the premier online resource for automotive information. Its comprehensive set of data, tools and services, including Edmunds.com True Market Value(R) pricing, is generated by Edmunds.com Information Solutions and is licensed to third parties. For example, the company supplies over 800,000 pages of content for the auto sections of AOL and NYTimes.com, provides weekly data to Automotive News and delivers monthly data reports to Wall Street analysts. Edmunds.com was named "best car research" site by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the "most useful Web site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Study(SM) and was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. and maintains a satellite office outside Detroit.