Inventory Dip Alters One Crucial Metric in May

Inventory picked up slightly in May but still remains lower than what was witnessed last year. Overall, shoppers are just as happy as they were last month and more than they were last year. Nine out of 10 (90%) said it was easy to purchase a car in May, the same number as April. And many other metrics we track each month in our Ease of Purchase Scorecard remained the same or increased compared to last month. 

But one metric saw a significant drop. 

It was harder for car buyers to find the car they wanted. That number fell from 80% in April to just 74% in May. It’s also down from May 2024’s 79%. The industry was happy with robust inventories early in the year, but the tightening of inventories from tariff pressures and people pulling up purchase decisions earlier in the year is clearly having an impact. 

And while the number of dealerships consumers had to visit remained steady from last month’s jump, how they acquired their vehicle did change. 

Less than half of respondents (49%) said they found the car they wanted in stock, down from 53% last month and significantly lower than the 59% in January. More people bought their car in transit to the dealership, 22% up from 20% in April. With the biggest increase coming from factory orders, up from 16% in April to 20% this month. 

The struggle to find the perfect car was offset by steadiness or gains in other parts of the purchase process. The most surprising was the test drive, up to 82% in May from 80% in April. Generally, we see that score fall as inventory restricts. 

Other areas seeing gains were:

• Discussing and agreeing on a final price: 65%
• Applying for credit: 67%
• Taking delivery: 77%

Despite strength in a majority of the purchase process, shoppers said it took longer to buy a car in May than they were expecting. Nearly a third (31%) said they spent more time at the dealership than they expected, up from 28% in March but still an improvement over last May’s 34%. 

As automakers shift production plans due to the current tariff environment, it’s likely we’ll continue to see shoppers on the hunt more than they’ve been used to in recent times. It’ll be interesting to see if dealers can continue to maintain the strength in the rest of their operations if the inventory crunch stretches on.