Moving on up
* Annual sales rate in the month finished at 16.1 million vehicles. August volume surged 17% and year-over-year gained by 10%. Analysts expected a 15.8 SAAR.
* BMW division up 46%! Subaru up 45%!
* Toyota still besting Ford for number 2 spot. General Motors was up 15% month-over-month Aug 2013 from August 2012
* Volvo is down August over August (13%) and year-over-year (6%). Volkswagen was down August-over-August (2%) and year-over-year (!%) but Volkswagen has a great group of brands to pull from including Audi, Bentley, and Porsche, pulling the whole group up 4% month over month and year-over-year
Reasons for the uplift in sales:
* low-interest rates are still in effect for automobiles – still relatively low, though the average finance rate went up .10% from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the second quarter of 2013. The average amount financed went down slightly from $26,692 to $26,526. The average credit score went from 755 to 749.
* new product in all segments of the automobile line-up from the Chevy Cruze diesel to pickup trucks to Bentley’s new flying spur. People can sit in their car on average 11 years, but when they start seeing an all-new design complimented with infotainment and technology they want it.
Melinda Zabritski, Director of Automotive Credit for Experian, says the average amount financed for a new vehicle in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2013 was $26,526, the average credit score for a new vehicle loan in the United States was 749, and the average finance rate for a new vehicle was 4.46% in Q2, 2013. Zabrit’ski said that Experian Automotive was able to break out the financing attributes for new and used vehicles in 45 of the States from its vehicle database. Information on the other areas, like D.C. is currently not available.
Melinda Zabritski, Director of Automotive Credit for Experian, says the average amount financed for a new vehicle in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2012 was $26,692, the average credit score for a new vehicle loan in the United States was 755, and the average finance rate for a new vehicle was 4.36% in Q4, 2012.
In an email from R. L. Polk’s Lead Analyst for Polk’s North American Forecasting, Tom Libby, “Historically sales have run about .6% above registrations, and through the first six months of 2013 (the most recent time period for which we have both registrations and sales), sales are about .56% above registrations. So, yes, so far in 2013 the data are conforming to historical trends.”
The price of a vehicle has gone up as well. According to Truecar, the average transaction price of a new vehicle for February 2013 was $30,958. The average transaction prices for a new vehicle climbed to 31,252 in August 2013.
In addition, TrueCar estimated that the average incentive for light vehicles was $2,477 in August 2013,
up $9 (0.4 percent) from August 2012; and down $67 (-2.6%) from July 2013.
The manufacturer with the highest August 2013 Incentives/Avg. Transaction Price is General Motors (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC) at 10.1%, down from 10.8% in July 2013. The lowest August 2013 Incentives/Avg. Transaction Price was Honda (Acura, Honda) at 5.5%, down from 6.5%. The industry average for August 2013 was 7.9%.
