News Coverage
U.S. Auto Sales Slump May Extend to a Third Month
Monday April 1, 2019
Article Highlights
- Prices keep rising as sedan sales slump and Detroit culls cars from their lineups, making SUVs and trucks a bigger share of the sales mix.
- That, combined with higher interest rates and underwhelming tax refunds, is weighing on affordability, shrinking the pool of people who can afford new vehicles, according to Cox Automotive.
- Carmakers are betting sales will pick up in the spring, as they typically do. But the threats of tariffs, cheaper used vehicles, tightening credit and economic slowdown could crimp demand. If deliveries don’t recover, the industry will be forced to hike incentives or cut production.
Bloomberg, April 1, 2019 — U.S. auto sales likely fell for a third straight month in March, as carmakers held the line on discounts and average new-car prices continued to climb. Most companies will report results on Tuesday.
Retail sales, which exclude deliveries to rental-car companies and other fleet customers, probably were the lowest for any first quarter since 2013, researcher LMC Automotive says. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of total sales in March may have slowed to about 16.8 million cars and light trucks, according to the average estimate in a Bloomberg News survey, from 17.3 million a year earlier.