“Despite economic headwinds, the auto industry is on track to deliver year-over-year sales growth alongside record transaction prices and record consumer expenditures for the month of February. Improving vehicle availability is allowing more retail and fleet customers who have been waiting on the sidelines to finally buy a new vehicle,” said Thomas King, president of the data and analytics division at J.D. Power.

“Manufacturer discounts are up slightly from a month ago, but they remain historically low. The average incentive spend per vehicle is tracking toward $1,335, a 4.7% increase from a year ago. Incentive spending per vehicle expressed as a percentage of the average vehicle MSRP is trending at 2.8%, down 0.1 percentage points from February 2022. One of the factors contributing to the low level of spending is the absence of discounts on vehicles that are leased. This month, leasing is accounting for just 18% of retail sales. In February 2019, leases accounted for 31% of all new-vehicle retail sales,” King said.