The average transaction price for a new car has now sailed north of $50K for the first time.
Kelley Blue Book noted that the average transaction price of a new vehicle was $50,080 in September. That’s a jump of 2.1 percent from August and 3.6 percent year over year.
MSRP’s are up, too, to an average of $52,183.
According to KBB, tariffs play a role, but so does a large mix of luxury cars and expensive electric vehicles. Indeed, 60 vehicles on the market have ATPs above $75,000. These vehicles sell about 94,000 units and account for 7.4 percent of the market.
From Erin Keating, executive analyst KBB’s parent company, Cox Automotive:
Despite high prices, challenging charging infrastructure, and the disappearance of the federal tax credit, EVs are selling well, with the market share shooting up to 10.5 percent.
Nearly 440,000 EVs moved off of dealer lots in the third quarter of 2025, with an estimated September ATP of over $58K.
The introduction of lower-priced Tesla models could move EV ATPs down.
Overall, it wasn’t long ago that a $50K or more vehicle was considered a luxury car and ATPs were in the $30K range.
We’ve seen this coming for quite some time, and there are no indicators that the ATP will drop anytime soon.
Meanwhile. the $20K market is dead — few models are on offer at that price point and consumers seem to be looking for used cars instead.
[Image: Karkhut/Shutterstock.com]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
More by Tim Healey
Idiots overpaying for vehicles that likely will break just after 60k miles (warranty threshold) hits. That is over $1 per mile you are paying for a vehicle that will not be able to run by its 10th year. IT will be scrapped. Intentionally designed so to do.
Intentionally designed so to do.
I’m tellin’ y’all, its sabotage!
Grrr, this is what I’ve been yacking on about. ATP includes leases, meaning the end user of the car isn’t buying the car/suv but it’s reported as though it’s been sold to the end user. People hear average new car price, not transaction price because most of us non-car nerds don’t know the difference.
This use of data is misleading and gets people thinking they have to spend more for a new car because the ‘average’ is 50k. Very helpful mindf*** if you’re a bank, dealer or mfg.
This is preying on the financially illiterate.
FWIW, cars dot com shows over 3000 new cars for sale under 20k. That’s not mostly extinct.
3000 is kinda small number, considering that Jeep sells ~35K Wagoneers
“This is preying on the financially illiterate.”
Isn’t that every industry?
