Playing Field Leveling Off - U.S. Vehicle Inventories at Highest Point Since June 2021

Washington DC October 18, 2022; The AIADA reported that slowing new car sales helped inventory levels recover further to 1.32 million vehicles in September, a significant jump over where they were a year earlier but still historically low, according to Cox Automotive and the Automotive News Research & Data Center.

Cox said the figure — the highest since June 2021 — represented a 42-day supply, based on its practice of using the selling rate from the last 30 days.

Automotive News reports it was nearly a half million vehicles higher than where inventory stood at the same point last year and about 90,000 higher than where it stood a month earlier.

But inventory remained more than 2 million vehicles down from the same month in 2019, before the pandemic.

Mass-market and luxury brand inventories collectively rose from the previous month, Cox said. Within individual segments, stocks of compact and midsize cars remained tight, along with minivans and electrified vehicles, while selections were best among full-size pickups and high-end luxury cars.