What is the average price of a new car in the United States?

How to get close to this number

Anchor on a salary fraction. A new car has historically cost somewhere around six to nine months of median household income, and this site puts that income in the low eighties of thousands. Half a year of median income gives a figure in the high forties of thousands.

The composition shift in the explanation is what drives most of the rise: manufacturers largely abandoned cheap sedans for higher-margin trucks and SUVs. The average price rose partly because prices rose and substantially because the cheap end of the market stopped being offered — a mix change reads as inflation in any average.

That distinction matters for interpreting the figure. If you compare the price of the same model across a decade, the increase is much smaller than the average suggests; the average moved because the available choices changed. Any average price for a product category should be read alongside what is in the category.