Buying a new car has never been simple, but lately it’s started to feel like a high-stakes game of timing chicken. Incentives appear and vanish, interest rates loom large, and MSRPs seem to have forgotten how gravity works. Still, if your finances are squared away, one old-school strategy is suddenly relevant again: buying just before—or even after—a model-year rollover.
Dealers, it turns out, are sitting on a lot of metal. And not the good kind.
Across the U.S., unsold new-car inventory has quietly ballooned to levels not seen in over a year. As of the end of November, dealerships were holding more than 3 million vehicles, a figure that would’ve sounded downright optimistic during the supply-starved years of the early 2020s. While most of those are shiny new 2026 models, a meaningful chunk consists of leftover 2024 and 2025 vehicles that simply aren’t moving.
December may have been peak deal season, but the hangover is lingering into the new year—and for buyers willing to hunt, that’s good news.
Inventory Is Up. Prices? Not So Much.
Here’s the frustrating part: despite all those cars clogging up lots, prices refuse to come back down to earth. The average new-car listing price in November sat at $49,422, a record high and slightly above the previous peak set late last year. For most of 2025, prices hovered stubbornly between $47,000 and $49,000, leaving bargain hunters with little to celebrate.
As Karl Brauer of iSeeCars puts it, new-car prices remain “near record highs,” which makes value hard to find—unless you’re flexible. Dealers are far more willing to negotiate when a car has been aging on the lot, especially when it’s technically last year’s model, even if it’s still brand-new.
Translation: yesterday’s model year might be today’s smartest purchase.
Stellantis Has a Problem—Several, Actually
No automaker illustrates this inventory imbalance better than Stellantis, which appears to be playing a one-brand game of musical chairs—and the music stopped early.
The poster child is the Dodge Hornet plug-in hybrid, which still accounts for an eye-watering 82 percent of all remaining 2024 inventory. To put that in perspective, the industry-wide average for leftover 2024 models is just 0.4 percent. That’s not a typo—that’s a market-wide rounding error compared to Dodge’s situation.
Jeep isn’t faring much better. More than 70 percent of 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokees remain unsold, while the Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid is approaching 50 percent availability. These aren’t niche halo cars—they’re mainstream models that simply haven’t found enough takers.
Even more curious is the Chevrolet Malibu, a discontinued midsize sedan with nearly a third of its 2024 inventory still hanging around. At under $27,000, you’d expect it to fly out the door. Instead, it’s reportedly selling above MSRP, proving once again that the car market can behave in ways that defy both logic and spreadsheets.
The 2025 Bottleneck Is Even Worse
If you think the leftovers stop at last year’s models, think again. Some 2025 vehicles are piling up at rates that would make a rental fleet manager sweat.
Leading the pack is BMW’s i4, with nearly nine out of ten units still unsold, carrying an average price north of $67,000. Lexus isn’t far behind, with the GX 550 and LX 600 both hovering well above 80 percent unsold inventory. The Subaru BRZ, beloved by enthusiasts and priced relatively affordably, is also languishing, with 87 percent of its 2025 stock still waiting for homes.
What’s especially striking is how many supposedly hot-nameplates are on the list. The Toyota GR Corolla, the perpetually popular Ford Maverick, and multiple Toyota hybrids—including the Tacoma Hybrid and 4Runner Hybrid—are all seeing sluggish turnover. Toyota alone appears four times among the worst offenders, suggesting that even bulletproof brand loyalty has limits when prices climb and loan payments sting.
For context, the industry average for leftover 2025 inventory is 21 percent. Anything north of 60 percent isn’t just slow—it’s a flashing neon sign that dealers may be open to talking numbers.
What This Means for Buyers
If you’re shopping purely on price, this is still a rough market. But if you’re willing to look past the newest badge on the trunk lid, the current inventory glut creates leverage—especially on models that dealers are clearly eager to move.
Leftover new cars come with full warranties, modern tech, and zero miles of prior ownership, but they don’t carry the same psychological weight as the latest model year. That’s where buyers can win. Dealers want these cars gone before the next wave arrives, and incentives, discounts, or quietly generous financing terms are often easier to extract than headline pricing suggests.
The catch? You’ll need to be selective. Not every car with high inventory is a steal, and some models are lingering for good reasons. But if you’re patient, informed, and ready to negotiate, the excess of 2024 and 2025 models could finally tilt the playing field—just a little—back in the buyer’s favor.
In a market that’s spent years telling shoppers to take what they can get, that alone feels like a small victory.
Source: iSeeCars