40% of Car Shoppers Willing to Pay $5000 over MSRP for a New Car

• A study conducted in the last week of April found that most car shoppers have heard about the semiconductor chip shortage and are aware that it is affecting vehicle production, supply, and thus prices.

• Forty percent say they’re willing to pay 12 percent over MSRP for a new car. Given average new-car prices, that means $5000.

• Over a third of shoppers looking now say they’d wait to buy, given the high prices, and a quarter of those people say they'll buy used instead.

You already know this, but we'll say it again: car prices are climbing. A report in April showed prices were around 4 percent higher than a year before, and we've beat that news drum repeatedly in the past month. It turns out that people seem to understand that there's no way around it if you want to buy a new car today.

Cox Automotive released a study this week showing just how receptive buyers are to higher prices. Forty percent, Cox found, would not shy away from being charged a 12 percent premium. Given that the average new-car MSRP in the U.S. is almost $42,000, that means four in 10 people would accept a price that’s $5000 more than what the sticker says.

Despite the higher expected prices, only 37 percent said they’d wait to buy a vehicle, with 70 percent of those saying they’ll wait at least three months to purchase and 23 percent saying they’ll look at used vehicles, instead.

Cox Automotive spokesman Mark Schirmer told Car and Driver: "The current auto market, with low inventory and high demand, is anything but normal. And we know it's driving people away."