SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

September marked the fourth straight time new-vehicle transaction prices have fallen on a sequential basis, resulting in a five-month low for what new cars are fetching, according to TrueCar.

Specifically, the average new-car transaction price was $29,439 during the month. This is 1.2-percent higher than the year-ago figure but is off modestly (0.1 percent) from August

And the last time prices were this low was April.

“Transaction prices have started to decline as manufacturers have started to increase incentives and inventory is coming back,” explained Jesse Toprak, TrueCar’s vice president of industry trends and insights.

In fact, incentive levels hit their highest mark in a year, as they averaged $2,716 per vehicle. This is a 0.9-percent dip from a year ago but a 3.9-percent month-over-month rise.

“Hyundai/Kia has been the clear winner when looking at the ratio of average transaction price to incentives compared to the rest of the major manufacturers,” Toprak pointed out.

Percentage-wise, Ford’s transaction prices fell the most from August (1.2 percent), while Chrysler and Toyota were each down 0.4 percent month-over-month. GM and Hyundai/Kia both saw transaction prices dip 0.3 percent from August, while Honda fell 0.1 percent.

Nissan was the only one of seven largest OEMs to post an increase in transaction prices from the prior month (up 0.4 percent).

As far as incentive levels, Hyundai/Kia showed the strongest increase (up 12.8 percent) from August, but the heaviest drop-off from a year ago (down 18.8 percent).

Interestingly enough, the OEM also showed the lowest incentives-to-transaction price ratio at 7.6 percent. The overall industry averaged 9.2 percent.

“Hyundai/Kia has been the clear winner when looking at the ratio of average transaction price to incentives compared to the rest of the major manufacturers,” Toprak pointed out.

TrueCar also provided the following tables to illustrate its data: