Average New-Vehicle Price Spikes 19% in 10 Months, to $44,000. Unit Sales Tick up, But Still Down 34% from March

Automakers and dealers make enormous record per-vehicle gross profits amid inventory shortages in the craziest market ever.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

Hammered by the worst inventory shortages in memory, new car and truck sales had plunged five months in a row. But in October, sales ticked up to 1.05 million vehicles, from 1.01 million vehicles in September, which had been the worst September since the sales collapse in 2010.

This left October’s new vehicle sales down 34% from 1.6 million vehicles in March when there were still vehicles on dealer lots to sell, and down 22% from October 2019, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.