So Trump Was Right. He Was Mocked for Claiming Car Prices Would Go Down, but Many Car Prices Did Go Down, and Proof Is Easy to Find

Many of President Trump’s claims about the economy are so widely mocked that it’s hard to know which promises he actually made, what the context was, and if his promises actually came true or not. I’m not an economist. I’m just a car guy with a crazy level of unused math education who has tracked the car economy for two decades. I do know what cars cost, where the best sources of data are, and I know how to tell the truth from a fib when it comes to car prices. I will lay out the proof and sources for you that show President Trump said car prices would go down after he was elected. I can also show you quite easily that many car prices in September of 2025 were lower than they were the month before he took office. Let’s look first at what candidate Trump said in September 2024.

We're going to get the prices down. We have to get them down. It's too much. Groceries, CARS, everything. We're going to get the prices down.

We have emphasized the word “cars.” This statement is purported to be from a rally that candidate Trump spoke at in Erie, Pennsylvania, on September 29, 2024. You can view the source of this quote yourself and judge if it is true. My story presumes it is true.

Moving on to the second set of facts, we will use the last full month of President Biden’s term, December of 2024, as our benchmark. Candidate Trump was referring to his time as President (if he won) when he claimed he could lower car prices.

The best source of car prices in America is Cox Automotive. You may know the name of one of their subsidiaries, Kelley Blue Book.  They calculate the average transaction price for each vehicle segment and each automaker, then aggregate all of these to get a final average. The term is average transaction price, also known as ATP. It’s not sticker price. It is more akin to the average of what consumers actually pay. How Cox calculates the ATP estimate is three parts science and data collection, and one part industry art. What we like is that it really doesn't matter which formula Cox uses if you're looking to see trends and changes, because they’ve been using the same basic formula to calculate ATPs for quite some time. Almost every automotive publication and scores of social media influencers use the Cox ATP values in headlines.

-View ATPs For President Biden's Last Month In Office (December 2024) Here
-View ATPs For September 2025 Here

Proof That “Car Prices Went Down”
In December of 2024, the price of a compact car was $27,061. In September of 2025, the price was $26,947. Compact Cars are the least expensive segment, encompassing models like the Civic, Sentra, and Corolla. Compact and Midsize trucks also went down.  In December of 2024, the ATP for this segment was $$43,966. It went down to $43,190 in September of 2025. This segment includes Toyota’s Tacoma, Ford’s Maverick, and Chevy’s Colorado. We think it’s more than fair to use these as examples of how prices went down since President Trump took office. Overall, the industry aggregate ATP rose 0.68%. Many point to price increases for expensive EVs and luxury models as the reason for the slight overall rise in ATPs.

In addition to Cox’s example showing the entire segment of compact cars and compact/midsized trucks declining in price, we have a few other ways to illustrate the point. The prices we have just used as examples were ones that are as of the end of September, so they represent the prices shoppers paid in the last few weeks. But what about sticker price changes for 2026? For the most part, they are rising at about the usual amount. However, many 2026 models have been announced at prices below those of 2025. For example, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 is priced dramatically lower for 2026. It’s number two in its segment in terms of sales. Its price change for 2026 is down by $9,030 on average. Some trims are going down even more. The Ioniq 5 is the easiest example to point to, but Nissan has priced many trims of its Pathfinder below 2025 levels, and Kia has priced some trims of its EV9 below 2025 levels.

Individual model price reductions only tell part of the tale. What about overall price drops for manufacturers since President Trump was elected? Tesla is the standout. Its U.S. sales have gone up each of the past three quarters, and Tesla's Q3 deliveries were the best Q3 deliveries of the company’s history. Tesla’s overall ATP in December of 2024 was $55,258. In September of 2026, Tesla’s ATP was $54,138. That is a significant drop, considering that Tesla introduced a very expensive new truck. Tesla has also just introduced new, lower-cost trims of the top-selling Model 3 and Model Y. Each dominates its segment in terms of deliveries. These new low-cost trims may mean that ATPs for Tesla continue to go down. Only time will tell.

It’s not just the Tesla brand that has seen its ATP drop since President Trump took office. Acura’s ATP is down about 10%, Mercedes-Benz’ ATP is down about $2K, and GMC’s ATP has also dropped over the period.

Can you spend more for a new car or truck in 2025 than during President Biden’s term? Sure, but you can also opt to pay less. Will many cars and trucks have higher prices in 2026 than in 2025? Well, prices have changed upward nearly every year, haven’t they? What makes 2026 a bit odd is that many automakers have reduced sticker prices on popular models.

Feel free to mock your president all you like, but be well-informed when you do so. It is easy to find examples of car and truck price drops since President Biden left office, and you don't need to adjust for the declining value of the dollar to do so. If you opt to do that, prices today are lower than in 2022. That means doing math, though, and we don't think the President had that in mind when he made a bold statement at a campaign rally. He meant the price changes like the ones we have given as examples.

Thus far, this story has focused only on new-car prices. You may be convinced that President Trump kept his word, or you may not be. We’ll let you examine the data yourself and be the judge. The used car Market is way easier to interpret. Used car prices are virtually unchanged since Candidate Trump's bold promise in September of 2024, but compared to the peaks during President Biden’s term, they are now well below the levels buyers were paying from 2021 through 2023. We’ll let this chart, which used-car economists use to track prices, do the talking. You can find more on the subject online.

Combine the new and used car prices today under President Trump with the prices paid during peaks of the Biden administration, and there is ample evidence that President Trump kept his promise. Tell us in the comments section below if you think so. 

Top of page image taken by the author at Market Basket, Maynard, MA, in October 2025. Graphs of average transaction prices and used car index over time courtesy of Cox Automotive.
 

John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his fourteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools.