Продажи новых автомобилей в Айове упали на 12% из-за роста цен и проблем с доступностью

(KMAland) -- The latest data shows the sale of new vehicles continues to slide in Iowa. From July 1st of last year to June 30th of this year, Iowans registered just over 104-thousand new cars and trucks. That's about a 12 percent drop in new vehicle purchases from the previous fiscal year. Bruce Anderson is president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association. "Because of all the enhanced safety features -- lane deviation warnings and adaptive cruise control and crash avoidance -- and fuel efficiency, new cars are more expensive and there is a bit of an affordability issue," Anderson said, "which results in a more robust pre-owned market." Anderson says the inventory crunch that happened during the pandemic has largely been resolved in Iowa and there are plenty of mid-sized S-U-Vs and half-ton pick-ups on dealers' lots. "The selection's back for most of the vehicles that most Iowans want," Anderson says. "...One somewhat unique thing about Iowa -- we have a very, very high dealership per capita ratio as compared to states with mega-metropolis kind of dealers in it, so there's lots of rural dealers in Iowa. That gives us more inventory, more places to shop and then it also provides competition on price." Used and new car sales in Iowa topped five-and-a-half BILLION dollars in the past fiscal year. According to the Iowa D-O-T, there are over four-and-a-half MILLION vehicles registered in Iowa. "The average car on the road has just recently crept up to about 12 years old to 13 years old in Iowa," Anderson said. Nine percent of the new vehicles purchased in Iowa during the just-concluded fiscal year were cars or sedans. The rest were trucks or S-U-Vs.