After a drop in sales in May and June, US vehicle sales picked up and as a result, July and August sales were better than originally expected -though still lagging behind the January to April numbers.
Today, J.D. Power and Associates reported that this trend is continuing in the first half of September, mainly due to the increasing inventory of many carmakers.
In August, J.D. Power analysts, who collect data from 8,900 dealers, expected annual sales in the US market to reach 12.1 million vehicles. After September’s results, they have revised their estimates to 12.9 million, while in September 2010 their projection was for 11.7 million.
“Coming off a solid Labor Day sale, retail sales exhibited unexpected strength in the second week of September as the recovering inventory levels have brought buyers back into the market” stated J.D. Power executive director of global inventory Jeff Schuster.
However, like many other analysts, Schuster is not convinced that carmakers must open the champagne bottles yet: “Incentive levels remain flat compared with August and the economy remains a concern, so sales in the second half of September may give back some of the gain.”
J.D. Power expects total US sales for 2011 to increase by 9% compared to 2010, to 12.1 million vehicles, and anticipate an ever more substantial increase in 2012, to 14.1 million. They are not however prepared to bet their wages on it, since the state of the economy results in a high level of uncertainty.
Story sources: JD Power via Reuters
