AutoQuotes August Newsletter Part 1

Modest 12-Month Price Inflation Kent Motes, CEO, AutoQuotes So far 2012 has seen modest but highly varied price increases. Many product categories, as well as the overall average price increases, were modest for the 12 months: July to end of June 2012. AutoQuotes samples LIST PRICE changes year to year for 350,000 models from the AutoQuotes database. There were no indications In the sample that Mfr Discounts had changed, but there has been some discussion of the increased frequency of so-called "deviated" prices. We calculate both Median price changes (half above, have below) and Average.  The AverageJuly 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 Price increase was 2.2%, with a Median of 3.0%.  Only 2% of Mfrs decreased prices, but another 38% of Manufacturers had 0% increases.  In comparison, in 2010 -2011, almost half the manufacturers had no net increase (median was 0.3%), but average was at 2.7% as upper-half price inflation was more aggressive in 2010-2011. Fewer manufacturers increased prices this year.  Total number of new price lists from January to July are 20% fewer than last year: 265 in '12 vs. 330 in '11. There is some variation in price increases for product categories.  Most product categories saw average increases in the 2%-3% range.  But cooking was more aggressive: Price increases average 3.7%.  On the other hand, refrigeration increases of less than 1%.  Prep equipment, which had increases in 4% range'09-'11, fell back to just 1.5% this year.