August 2019 U.S. auto sales came in slightly higher than forecast, marking another solid month for the industry. The seasonally adjusted annual selling rate (SAAR) was 17.0 million units. Volume was helped by a good Labor Day weekend, strong fleet sales and also a healthy dose of incentives. We’ve shared top-level takeaways from August sales. … Continued
Electric vehicles (EV) might receive significant consumer and media attention, but they only represent a small portion of new-vehicle sales each month. That is expected to dramatically change over the next 5-10 years as OEMs invest their research, development and product planning into electric vehicles. And while EV supply is expected to increase, consumer adoption … Continued
A look at year-to-date new car prospect traffic on Autotrader.com compared to the same period last year shows the top five growth segments (among 17 mainstream segments) in share of overall traffic are all small to midsize SUVs and trucks. It’s no surprise given the general rise in popularity of SUVs and trucks, and as shopper interest … Continued
Combined rental, commercial and government purchases of new vehicles were up 23% year over year in August, and up 18% month over month. The commercial (+10%) and rental (+45%) fleet channels were up in August. Automakers like Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, General Motors and Nissan all achieved notable gains in fleet sales. Fleet sales are now up 7% … Continued
Our team continues to track an elevated number of incentives programs this year, a trend we saw again in August as volume came in ahead of year-ago levels. With inventory up and sales slowing, the higher raw number of programs we’ve followed each month in 2019 is mostly a result of automakers being smarter with … Continued
The top 10 new luxury and non-luxury retail models registered in the first half of this year show a clear consumer focus on utility vehicles and pickup trucks. Of the top 10 luxury and top 10 non-luxury vehicles sold at retail and registered through end of June, were sport-utility vehicles, three were pickup trucks and … Continued
Annual per capita miles driven in the United States has plateaued since the Great Recession. In the mid-2000s miles driven peaked at around 13,200 per capita (population aged 16+) then decreased every year between 2006 and 2014. A tepid, flat-income economic recovery combined with historically higher fuel prices significantly increased the real cost of operating … Continued
Sales of certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicles increased 6% in July compared to July 2018 and were down 2% compared to June. For the month, 236,579 CPO units were sold. Over 1.6 million CPO vehicles have been sold in 2019, up 2% year to date versus 2018. This year CPO sales are growing at a comfortable … Continued
We can look back in general terms at July 2019 and call it a solid month of new-car sales in the U.S. With roughly 1,399,000 vehicles sold, the market was on pace to sell 16.8 million for the year, aligned with the Cox Automotive full-year estimate. We know a lot of companies pulled the fleet … Continued
The U.S. auto industry entered August with days’ supply of vehicle inventories trending higher at a time of the year when inventories traditionally are lowest as automakers sell down the previous model year to make way for new model year vehicles. New-vehicle inventories came in under 4 million units for the third consecutive month, but … Continued
