Daily News Briefs: April 23, 2012

Here's what we've got our eye on today:

• Total new-car discounts fell sharply in April as incentives from automakers and dealers combined for 15% off the typical new-car MSRP, in accordance with last week's Retail Automotive Summary from CNW Marketing Research. That's down from 16.3% in March, but it surely's earlier than April 2011's 13%. As automakers looked to restore sales, discounts inside the first three months of 2012 outpaced year-ago levels by 2.4% to two.8%. The variation shrank to one.9% in April, while MSRPs rose. The web result? Transaction prices - what buyers pay after discounts - are up 5.6% compared with year-ago levels.
• Car shoppers might find higher prices more palatable if household incomes matched the upward push, however the average income for car buyers fell 1.1% between January and March, CNW reports. Think about rising transaction prices, and the common new-car buyer earns just 1.97 times the price of his or her car in annual salary. It's the primary time that number has fallen below the benchmark 2.0 ratio in well over a year, CNW says, and it reflects a decline in auto affordability.
• Sales for hybrids and plug-in vehicles rose 44% within the first quarter of 2012, but they still make up just 3.3% of the total market, Automotive News reports. Hybrids still account for the lion's share of that slice - 3.1% of the market, or about 94% of these sales - with plug-in vehicles just like the electric Nissan Leaf and gas-supported Chevrolet Volt comprising the remainder fraction. But Automotive News notes that the share continues to be better than it was during gas price spikes in 2008 and 2011. Neither period saw hybrids and plug-ins crack 2.2%.
• Analysts predicted two weeks ago that prices for used small cars could peak soon. Now they expect all used-cars prices to peak sometime in May or June, falling back to January levels by the tip of the year, Automotive News reports. Inventory shortages spawned by four years of depressed new-car sales drove used-car prices to record highs last May. Tom Webb, an economist for Mannheim Consulting, told Automotive News "it wouldn't take much" to hit that record again.
• Chevrolet's global sales rose 6.5% inside the first quarter, and the Chevrolet Cruze is the logo's best-selling car worldwide, The Detroit News reports. One in three Cruzes went to a buyer in China, who averaged just 32 years old. The rustic was Chevrolet's third-largest market in 2011, however it's the most important marketplace for Chevrolet parent General Motors.

From WhatNewsToday.net

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