{"id":51098,"date":"2012-06-28T08:19:31","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T12:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=51098"},"modified":"2012-06-28T10:32:05","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T14:32:05","slug":"car-prices-tumble-especially-japanese-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2012\/06\/car-prices-tumble-especially-japanese-products\/","title":{"rendered":"Car Prices Tumble \u2013 Especially Japanese Products"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the holiday approaches, motorists will be able to celebrate the decline in both new and used car prices.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The start of the typically strong summer buying season has brought with it some great news for U.S. car buyers.\u00a0 According to a variety of sources, prices are tumbling on both new and used vehicles \u2013 especially those Japanese offerings that were in short supply last year in the week of that country\u2019s devastating earthquake and tsunami.<\/p>\n

While prices vary by model and manufacturer, you can expect to pay about $500 less for the typical new car, truck or crossover than you would have for the same product a year ago, according to research by Kelly Blue Book.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, after a record run-up in pricing during the winter and spring, used car prices also appear to be on the decline.<\/p>\n

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Pricing News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the biggest discounts, the tracking firm reports, come on Japanese models like the Honda Civic and even the Toyota Prius.\u00a0 But that may be a bit misleading.\u00a0 Following the March 2012 natural disaster, most Japanese products were in short supply, leading makers to trim back rebates and other discounts \u2013 effectively raising prices.\u00a0 Those givebacks are now getting back to more normal levels, Bob Carter, head of the Toyota division, tells TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason, KBB reports that the typical Honda is currently going for about $1,200 less than a year ago, while Toyota, Subaru and Mazda products are down by as much as $800.<\/p>\n

Japanese inventories are largely back to normal after the production cuts that followed the 2012 crisis, meaning motorists will also find better choices at their local dealers.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest price cuts comes at Honda, where a new Civic is now going for an average $1,550 less than a year ago, according to KBB.\u00a0 Last year\u2019s launch of an all-new 2012 model was largely aborted by the Japanese production cuts, leading to a sharp, if temporary, increase in the price of the Civic.<\/p>\n

But the price of the Toyota Prius is also down by a full $2,500 from June 2011, reports Kelly Blue Book.\u00a0 And fuel prices also appear to be a factor.\u00a0 Demand for the Prius surged as gas prices soared, but sales of all high-mileage models have begun to slip as fuel costs have settled back again.<\/p>\n

Detroit makers are also cutting prices, largely through increased incentives.\u00a0 But the discounts are smaller, reports KBB, typically in the $500 range.<\/p>\n

Ironically, while Japanese inventories are getting back to normal Detroit makers are struggling to meet demand.\u00a0 Ford Motor Co. warns it will lose market share because it can\u2019t roll out new vehicles like the Explorer SUV and Focus sedan and hatchback quickly enough.\u00a0 That\u2019s normally a recipe for reduced discounting.<\/p>\n

Hyundai is a case in point.\u00a0 The maker also is running into production bottlenecks that will likely lead to a dip in its market share for 2012, TheDetroitBureau.com reports.\u00a0 (<\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for that story.)<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Hyundai now is offering the lowest incentives of any major automaker in the U.S. market.<\/p>\n

Overall, now may be a great reason to consider buying a new vehicle suggests Alec Gutierrez, a senior market analyst for KBB.\u00a0 “Although conditions in the global economy continue to deteriorate, consumers who are willing to pull the trigger on a new vehicle will find that there are plenty of deals available.\u201d<\/p>\n

New car buyers aren\u2019t the only ones who are getting good news this summer.\u00a0 Research firm CNW Marketing reports that used car prices also appear to be on a downward slope after months of steady increases.\u00a0 As with the new car market, pricing for \u201cpreviously owned\u201d vehicles is sensitive to supply and demand and prices were negatively influenced by the fact that there were fewer nearly new models coming back to market.\u00a0 That, in turn, reflected the slower sales of new cars during the depths of the recession in 2008 and 2009.<\/p>\n

As new car sales recover there\u2019ll subsequently be more product entering the used market eventually leading to further discounts there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prices are tumbling on both new and used vehicles \u2013 especially those Japanese offerings that were in short supply last year in the week of that country\u2019s devastating earthquake and tsunami. Used car prices are also sliding, reports TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51098"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=51098"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=51098"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=51098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}