Transaction Prices For New Cars Continue to Reach New Record Highs in December

Transaction Prices Increase for the Fourth Straight Month; Incentives Decrease Nearly Three Percent from Last Year

SANTA MONICA, CA--Jan. 4, 2012: TrueCar.com, the authority on new car pricing, trends and forecasts, estimated today that the average transaction price for light vehicles in the United States was $30,686 in December 2011, up $1,682 (5.8 percent) from December 2010 and up $189 (0.6 percent) from November 2011.

"Despite continued economic uncertainty, consumers bought more technology and features-rich vehicles in 2011 helping transaction prices reach record levels and strengthening their balance sheets," said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insights for TrueCar.com. "It's an indication that if you build the right product, consumers will purchase it even without manufacturers spending heavily on incentives."

Transaction Pricing Forecast

In addition, TrueCar.com estimated that the average incentive for light-vehicles was $2,562 in December 2011, down $80 (3.0 percent) from December 2010 and down $68 (2.6 percent) from November 2011.

Incentive Spending Forecast See Below:

TrueCar.com estimated that the ratio of incentives to average transaction price for light-vehicles was 8.4 percent in December 2011, down from 9.1 percent in December 2010 and up from 8.6 percent in November 2011.

Ratio of Incentives to Average Transaction Price

For additional data on incentives and transaction prices, please visit the TrueCar Truth Blog.

About TrueCar, Inc.

TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive solutions provider focused on changing how cars are sold by providing a significantly better customer experience while helping qualified dealer partners to gain incremental market share and reduce costs.  TrueCar is a transparent, visual publisher of new car transaction data.  TrueCar price reports help both dealers and consumers to agree on the parameters of a fair deal by providing an accurate, comprehensive and simple understanding of what others actually paid for the identically equipped new car over the last 30 days both locally and nationally.  TrueCar works with a national network of over 5,400 Certified Dealers that provide up-front, no-haggle, competitive pricing to assist some of the nation's largest and most well respected membership and service organizations to meet the auto buying needs of their members and customers.  These partnerships include American Express, AAA, USAA and more than 60 others.  Collectively these audiences represent over 1M in-market customers each month.  TrueCar is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and has offices in San Francisco, CA and Austin, TX.  The company was founded in 2005 and has been profitable since 2009.  With 131 percent annual growth since 2006, TrueCar has helped dealers sell over 400,000 vehicles and is developing a suite of transaction oriented products and services centered on transparency and radical clarity as a result of comprehensively analyzing market data and information.

You can follow TrueCar on Twitter and become a fan of TrueCar on Facebook. 

About TrueCar Data

TrueCar obtains data directly from numerous sources including technology companies, data aggregators, and analytics companies within the automotive space.   We also acquire vehicle configuration data, customer and dealer incentives data, financing and loan data, vehicle registration and insurance data, and much, much more.  TrueCar is insatiable about data with our goal to find 100 percent of all purchase transactions, even if that means finding the same transaction multiple times from multiple sources within the car-buying ecosystem.  Our data is among the most timely and comprehensive in the industry, as we are able to analyze most car sales within a week of the actual sales date, and have a substantial fraction on the site within 48 hours of the actual sale.  TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.