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New Vehicles Sales To Hit 12.23 Million

New light vehicle sales in the U.S. are expected to hit 12.23 million for 2010 based on sales projections for November. All manufacturers except Toyota are seeing significant increases compared to last November. Hyundai, including Kia, is up 45 percent while Toyota saw sales drop 1.7 percent compared to November 2009.

New Vehicle Sales Projections

GM reigns supreme in November with projected sales of 170,585. Ford comes in second with 151,657, Toyota comes in third at 131,419. No other car company comes close to breaking the 100,000 sales mark for November.

The following facts and figures were provided by TrueCar.com. The interesting figure to note is fleet and rental sales. Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik said the automobile industry would not be as robust without strong fleet and rental sales purchasing of one of every five vehicles sold.

  • New light vehicle sales (including fleet) in the U.S. for November 2010 is expected to be 868,283 units, up 16 percent from November 2009 and a decrease of almost 9 percent from October 2010 (on an unadjusted basis)
  • The November 2010 forecast translates into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (SAAR) of 12.23 million new car sales, nearly flat from 12.25 in October 2010, yet up from 10.92 in November 2009
  • Retail sales are down nine percent compared to October 2010 and up nearly 17 percent from November 2009
  • Fleet and rental sales are expected to make up 21 percent of total industry sales in November 2010
  • The industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,712 in November 2010, which represents a jump of six percent from October 2010 and a slight increase of one percent from November 2009

“Several consecutive months of year-over-year retail sales improvements indicate that the recovery in consumer demand has not been a coincidence,” said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insight for TrueCar.com, in a statement. “We have high expectations from December sales as year-end clearance events should drive the industry to its best unit sales total of the year. Based on this rising demand – as well as a slew of new products that will be hitting the marketplace – we have raised our 2011 forecast to 12.7 million units.”

And now for the disclaimer: "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."

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