U.S. car sales hit record levels in 2016, but it's reported that newer cars are getting more and more difficult to sell.

Some suggest that perhaps the industry might have peaked, while others suggest that worries over millennials moving away from car purchases is a myth that's widely overblown.

Local dealers have been sweetening their deals to try and get the customers in to take the new models off their hands, but it looks like things aren't going so well. According to a recent analysis from J.D. Power and LMC Automotive, dealers are taking longer than ever before in order to move those new cars.

If things don't turn around, then some say that there is cause to worry over the long-term health of the market.

The average incentive for new cars right now is estimated to be around $3499 and that is a record for the month of April.

When it comes to the overall incentives that dealerships are offering customers to try and get them in the door to get on the hook for a new vehicle, those incentives are estimated to be around $16.4 billion overall; up 13 percent from the previous year.

Incentives for selling new vehicles are now said to be at 10.5 percent of the manufacturer's suggested retail price, according to the CEO for one of the nation's largest dealership chains.

The dealerships are offering incredible deals but still it doesn't seem to be working and it is taking them too long to sell a new model.

The average new vehicle is sitting on the lot for 70+ days. And the average price of a new vehicle for the month of April was seen to be around $31k.

This is the highest amount of time that new cars have been seen sitting on the lot since back in the summer of 2009. And for roughly 30 percent of all the new cars this year that were sold, they had been on the lot for more than 90 days.

Honda has just recently said that they forecast a slowdown for the US market, and sales have slowed down for Ford and others as well. However despite the weakening demand in the US market, it looks like the same can't be said for others as the European market is expected to grow this year despite record-sales last year.

A Variety of Travel Options.

When it comes to vehicles and transportation needs, it's no wonder that many people might be turning away from the brand new models and opting for something that is a little more economical.

The car greatly depreciates the moment that you drive it off the lot, so for some people it just seems like a foolish idea to throw away tens of thousands of dollars on a new vehicle when there are many used ones out there that can do the same job.

There are also a growing number of alternative and efficient transportation methods available, like Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing programs, bike-sharing programs, and more. For many individuals it just makes a lot more economic sense to opt for one of these less expensive transportation methods, than to go out and buy a brand new vehicle.

Tesla, VW, and other car giants, still have big plans for affordable autonomous vehicles coming to the market in the near future; perhaps the car market in the US doesn't have anything to worry about for some time yet.

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Sources:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/canadian-us-car-sales-hit-record-levels-in-2016/article33502204/
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/01/august-us-auto-sales-drop-for-gm-ford-as-expected.html
https://www.ft.com/content/ea010b7e-37f7-396c-8b49-cb99aeeef4c4
https://www.ft.com/content/2567fac6-2b66-11e7-bc4b-5528796fe35c