Fleet Sales Increase More Than 25 Percent in February

Unlike the used market, the new-vehicle market showed no signs of improvement in February over January. New-vehicle retail sales were down 4 percent in February, leading to a retail SAAR of 13.0 million, down from 13.5 million last February. February new-vehicle total sales were down 2.4 percent year-over-year, with the same number of selling days compared to February 2018. The February total SAAR came in at 16.5 million, down versus last year’s 16.9 million.

However, combined rental, commercial and government purchases of new vehicles were up 3.5 percent year-over-year in February, and up 25.8 percent month-over-month. Rental (+5 percent) and government (+2 percent) fleet channels were up year-over-year in February.

Automakers typically frontload daily rental sales into the beginning of the year when retail sales are lowest.