Edmunds Price Index (EPI) Shows SUV Buyers Are Getting Great Deals During Gas Price Hike

SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 15, 2004;Edmunds reported today that the Edmunds Price Index for new vehicles (EPI-N) (January 2002 = 100) decreased 0.8% from 100.2 in April to 99.4 in May.

Edmunds.com found that this decrease was primarily the result of the significant 2.0% drop in the indices for both the large SUV and the luxury SUV segments. This is the third month in a row in which SUV prices declined. Large cars experienced the largest increase, 0.9%, followed by midsize cars at 0.7%.

"Consumers are driving hard bargains on SUVs, forcing manufacturers to offer a record amount of incentives on the vehicles and pushing down net price even further through assertive shopping," said Dr. Jane Liu, Vice President of Data Analysis for Edmunds.com. "Neither automakers nor dealers are earning the significant profits from SUV sales to which they have been accustomed, and gas prices are to blame."

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.