Dealerships in the D.C. region, and across the country, have had trouble keeping some vehicles in stock. These are largely popular, more expensive ones.
But others sit on the lot for weeks, or even months — and those are the ones you can get really good deals on, according to vehicle search site iSeeCars.
“We see a lot of these cars that are also the slowest-selling showing up as having the highest inventory backlog,” said Karl Brauer, iSeeCars executive analyst. “And when you’re a dealer and you just see these cars backing up as days and weeks go by, you work hard to get rid of them.”
In the D.C.-area market, the slowest-selling vehicle in January was the Chevrolet Trax, spending an average of 138 days on dealer lots.
The Chevy Equinox took an average of 86 days to sell in the D.C. market. The Kia Soul sat on D.C. area dealer lots for an average of 84 days.
iSeeCars calculated days-to-sell based on 1.2 million new and used car sales in January 2021.
The slowest-selling list is largely made up of some of the least expensive new vehicles.
“You would think inexpensive vehicles would sell better than expensive vehicles during a challenging economic time, but the truth is that people who buy inexpensive vehicles are the ones who are the least prepared to spend that money and do a big outlay of cash,” Brauer said.
With U.S. vehicle sales now dominated by SUVs, many slow sellers are cars. But the list of slow sellers also includes small SUVs.
“It’s interesting because SUVs have generally been selling so well that it is hard to believe that any of them wouldn’t do well,” Brauer said. “But these are small SUVs that aren’t premium brands. And there are just other vehicles out there that people would rather get. More expensive and more premium SUVs are selling much better.”
iSeeCars has posted a list of both the fastest and slowest selling vehicles at U.S. dealerships in January online.
Below is a list of the five slowest-selling new and used vehicles in the D.C. market in January:
