Commentary & Voices
This Week in Car Buying
Friday November 8, 2019
Article Highlights
- Ram introduces military-service themed trucks.
- Now’s the time to get that new 2019 model.
- Average transaction prices up, and EV sales outnumber manual gearbox volume.
Kelley Blue Book’s Senior Managing Editor Matt DeLorenzo writes This Week in Car Buying, a weekly column on KBB.com. In this week’s news, Matt reports that just in time for Veteran’s Day, Ram has launched a line of “Built to Serve Edition” Ram trucks to honor all five branches of the U.S. military.
While the 2020 model year is in full swing, buyers may want to check out the 2019 models left on dealer lots. Dealers have lots of 2019 models left because they just recently finished getting rid of all their unsold 2018 models. This could spell good news for bargain hunters as larger incentives come to bear in an effort to get those older vehicles off the lots.
According to Kelley Blue Book data, the estimated average transaction price for a light vehicle hit $38,259 in October, an increase of $1,064 or 2.9 percent over a year earlier. They moderated slightly month-over-month, dropping $141 from September.
A sign of the times in the transition from mechanical to electrified vehicles is the fact that for the first time, sales of EVs outpaced sales of vehicles equipped with manual gearboxes. According to J.D. Power, in the third quarter EVs accounted for 1.9 percent of all units sold, while manual transmissions came in at a 1.1 percent of the mix.