Hawaii Auto Outlook found in a third quarter report that the state marking for vehicle purchases underperformed compared to the rest of the nation.

HONOLULU (Island News) -- New cars now cost on average, thousands more than before the pandemic and that's in part led to a lag in sales.

"I'm kind of concerned about what's going to happen to all the vehicles that's non electric, looking into the future it's going to be all electric," said Honolulu's Ian Hose on Thursday.

Struggles are ongoing for those hoping to buy car.

Others have expressed concern over the need for the types of tax incentives and tax credits available.

The Hawaii Auto Outlook recently reported, closing out the third quarter "New light vehicle registrations fell 4.8% during the first nine months of 2024 versus year earlier levels, the national retail market was up 2.2%."

As concerns persist involving inflation and the economy what could it mean for future car purchases locally?

Melissa Pavlicek, Exec. Director of Hawaii Automobile Dealers Assoc. stated, "What I see in terms of the larger economy is an expectation that new car sales will pick up in 2025 and I think this is reflective of a hope the economy will be improving... we know that in Hawaii sometimes our economic indicators lag as we have our reliance on visitors."

"We can expect to see continue to see demand for EVs and hybrid vehicles, there are efforts at the county and state level to incentivize or even fund centralized charging locations, it can be a viable option to finance a car right now, I don't think there is any universal decision whether or not we should be buying cash or financing", added Pavlicek.

Economist Paul Brewbaker stated this month, "It's prudent to be cautious about use of consumer credit right now, but again the interest rate environment is improving."

Interest rates are going down that indicates a possible increase in affordability for people who need to finance.

Top brands sold in Hawaii through September of this year for new cars include Toyota, Honda, Tesla, Ford and Nissan.

As for the top selling models so far this year, the report says the Toyota Tacoma takes the top spot followed by the Tesla Model Y, the Toyota 4Runner, RAV4 and Corolla.