NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The average new car sold for almost $5,000 below sticker price in July, according to data from automotive Web site Edmunds.com.
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That's a 16.8 percent discount, based on the average new vehicle sticker price of $29,746, and is the widest since Edmunds began tracking incentives data in January 2002.
Manufacturer incentives, including rebates and financing deals, accounted for 58 percent of the total discount; the rest was attributable to discounts that consumers negotiated with dealers.
"New models are being introduced at higher price points, but the competitiveness of the market is dramatically pushing down net prices," said Jane Liu, vice president of data analysis for Edmunds.com. The average sticker price for the month was $746 higher than in July 2003.
Saying consumers have been getting the biggest discounts in at least six years of tracking such data, David Lucas, vice-president of automotive market analysis firm Autodata, agreed that consumers have been seeing huge discounts this summer.
All SUV segments, including luxury SUVs, experienced the largest discounts Edmunds has yet recorded.
Large SUVs, the most heavily discounted, sold for an average of $33,121, 22.2 percent below the average sticker price of $42,584. The least discounted SUVs were luxury models, which sold for about 10 percent below sticker price.
Midsize cars sold for abut 17 percent below sticker price; compact cars sold for 13 percent less; and Minivans for 15 percent less than MSRP.
Consumers may be getting disctracted by huge discounts, though, forgetting to pay attention to how much they are ultimately paying for their vehicles, said Autodata's Lucas.
"Consumers just come and in just want to know how they can save," he said.
Cars have also become more affordable than at any time in the past 25 years, according to Detoit-based Comerica Bank's Auto Affordability Index. In the second quarter of 2004 it took about 20.6 weeks of pre-tax median family income to purchase an average-priced new car, according to an announcement released by the bank today.
In the early 1980s it took about 25 weeks, on average, to earn enough money to fully cover the purchase costs of a car, said Comerica chief economist David Littman.
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