Deals and pent-up demand fuel auto sales
Auto sales recorded their strongest November in a decade, selling a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of around 17 million vehicles.
Kelley Blue Book senior editor Karl Brauer says there’s millions of cars worth of pent-up demand because of the great recession. Plus, this is the best lineup from the Big Three American automakers in a long time, he says.
“They’re not just strong in the large truck and SUV categories, where they have been strong for decades, but they also have very compelling cars – small cars, midsized SUVs,” he said.
Things were also helped by old-fashioned bargains and promotions. Kirt Frye, who operates the Sunnyside Automotive Group near Cleveland, had a gift card deal going over Black Friday weekend.
“We had them from 9 a.m. through 11 a.m. on a website, and at 9:05 all five of the $500 gift cards were already spoken for,” Frye said. “We sold five cars in about 15 minutes.”
Compare that to an average day of three cars sold.
In addition, gas prices have been falling, and cars are more fuel efficient than they were years ago. But Frye said gas prices are “probably not that much of an economic factor.”
“But for someone who is looking at a $12,000 to $15,000 used car, and they can buy an $18,000 new car and that new car gets 30-plus miles per gallon, now that math really matters,” he explained.
“The market is up for grabs amongst anybody,” said George Magliano, senior principal economist at IHS Automotive. “So you have to have the product and you have to fight for your market share,” he said.
So, consumers who have been waiting for the right time to buy are finding that time is now.
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