sales over 16 million were in 2007
The last time the auto industry had sales of over 16 million was in 2007. If sales keep up 2013 could come close to that number! June sales are out and according to Automotive News, the SAAR busted all analyst projections and came in at 15.98 million units projected!
Some of the highlights came from pickups. In line with new home starts, pickup sales were up. Ford just announced the Ford Tremor that will be showing up later in the year. The Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra couldn’t keep their pickups on the lot. A typical turnaround for pickups is 60-72 days. General Motors has had vehicles on the lot for over 100 days this year alone. The new pickups are so hot they have been averaging 10 days on the lot!
Pickups help General Motors, Ford and Dodge/Ram, but they also help the American market. Pickups are made mainly in North America. With those types of sales, it means job stability and a pickup in consumer confidence. The Dow did great in June and so did most luxury vehicles. As long as we don’t have a big upheaval in gasoline prices or a downturn in the economy we could see a surge in autos that we haven’t seen in years.
Subaru was the biggest winner, up 42% year-over-year. Multiple companies had winners and companies that are struggling; Nissan was up 16%, but the Nissan group was brought down by Infiniti’s struggles, Jaguar surged 59% year-over-year but Land Rover lost 4%, same for the Honda-Acura group, Toyota-Lexus-Scion group, and the Hyundai-Kia group.
John Batchelor, host of the John Batchelor radio show, and Lou Ann Hammond, CEO, www.drivingthenation.com discuss sales.
