August 2013 New Car Sales Expected to Be Up 14.4%; Fleets and Rentals Total 15%

TrueCar.com, the data-driven company that sources, compiles, and analyzes car-buying information, has released its August 2013 sales and incentives forecast. 

Highlights are as follows:

• For August 2013, new light vehicle sales in the U.S. (including fleet) is expected to be 1,464,214 units, up 14.4 percent from August 2012 and up 11.8% percent from July 2013 (on an unadjusted basis).
• The August 2013 forecast translates into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (“SAAR”) of 15.75 million new car sales, down less than one percent from July 2013 and up nine percent over August 2012.
• Retail sales are up 10.5 percent compared to August 2012 and up 11.7 percent from July 2013.
• Fleet and rental sales are expected to make up 15.0 percent of total industry sales in August 2013

“New vehicle sales defied their typical strong correlation with Wall Street in August and continued to post a healthy increase despite the lackluster performance in financial markets,” said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst for TrueCar.com. “Small SUVs became the fastest growing segment this month, with this very functional and affordable vehicle category now making up 15.5% of all sales, up from 13.5% from a year ago.

TrueCar.com bases its forecast on actual transaction data. The transaction data based forecast is refined by other current and historical factors that impact vehicle sales, including  sales, inventory, incentives, fuel prices, and macro economic data (major stock market indexes, consumer confidence, new home starts and CPI).  TrueCar.com does not adjust for selling days in year-over-year percentage change calculations.

 

Category: Featured, General Update