Inventory levels slip, still below 1 million

U.S. new-vehicle inventories edged lower in November, remaining below 1 million nationally in the face of continued production issues and supply shortages.

Cox Automotive estimated that dealers had about 958,000 vehicles either on their lots or on the way at the midpoint of last month, a 31-day supply based on a selling rate depressed by a lack of available inventory. The figure was down slightly from the 970,000 vehicles dealers had at the same point in October, but up from the record low of 915,000 in mid-September, Cox said.

The 958,000 vehicles is 1.7 million fewer than dealers had at the same point a year earlier and 2.5 million below the same point in 2019, Cox executive analyst Michelle Krebs said.

"We think December will be tough, so the industry will close out the year rather weak, especially since some luxury players have very low inventories," Krebs said. She noted that among luxury brands, BMW's inventories were in the best shape, and the Ford and Ram brands had more full-size pickup availability than Chevrolet and GMC.

Among automakers reporting monthly sales and inventory figures, Subaru and Mazda had the tightest inventory levels, while Ford was the only automaker with more than one month's supply on hand, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center. Ford, Mazda, Toyota and Volvo all saw their days' supply tighten over the past month; Honda and Subaru's days' supply both increased slightly, while Hyundai-Kia's inventory levels remained flat.