Good fodder for social media posts as dealers look for more consumers to trade in vehicles to up the depleted used car inventories.

Pent-up demand from coronavirus lockdowns has brought car and truck buyers back to the market, but once there, they may see little wiggle room on price. With limited inventory, dealers are often taking top dollar for the vehicles they do have. For several weeks, the average industry gross, or the gross profit dealers get on new-vehicle sales, has been climbing rapidly. It stood at $1,028 for the week ending July 12, compared with just $404 a year earlier, according to J.D. Power. And it’s up from $353 for the week ending April 19, when the industry was in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.