The Breakdown
- The average new-vehicle transaction price hit $50,326 in December of 2025.
- Dealer MSRP's also hit a record high of $52,627.
- High-end luxury sales and pickup truck sales were strong as the year closed out.
In the continuining sage of "Everything is Too Expensive" news, the average new-car transaction price hit a record high in December of 2025. According to Cox Automotive, car buyers paid an average price of $50,326 to get their new ride off the dealer lot.
That figure represents a 1.1 percent jump from November and a 0.8 percent year-over-year rise. The average MSRP also climbed to a record $52,627 in December. In fact, the average MSRP has remained above $50,000 for the last eight months in a row.
December is typically a strong month for automakers. Vehicles are heavily incentivised as automakers and dealers want to get older vehicles off the lots. Targets need to be met while space for the upcoming inventory is cleared.
Full-size pickup trucks carried much of the sales weight in December. According to Cox, more than 233,000 full-size trucks found new homes last month. This marked the best month for the segment in the last five years. These trucks carried an average transaction price of $66,386.
Luxury vehicles also fared well at the year's end. Of new cars sold in December, nearly 20 percent of shoppers purchased a high-end vehicle.
As expected, electric vehicle sales dipped in 2025. Compared to 2024, EV sales fell by two percent. Still, EV shoppers purchased approximately 1.28 million vehicles in 2025. Dealer and manufacturer incentives stepped in to push EV sales to close out the year, in spite of the government incentives ending.
Motor1's Take: The new-car market remains in an unsustainable place. Longer financing terms allow consumers to take on more debt in an effort to put a new vehicle in their driveway. How much higher can prices go before this system collapses in on itself?
Remember the movie The Big Short? Get ready for that, but with defaulted loans on extremely expensive cars and trucks.
Source: Cox Automotive
