Industry forecasts by J.D. Power predict a 15 percent rise in US new vehicle sales, powered by a retail surge in December. That would amount to the strongest ever year on year sales increase and only the third month of sales growth in what’s been a pretty dismal 2009. The others, in August (thanks to the cash-for-clunkers incentive) and in November, were very small gains.
“The market is continuing to improve, with the relative strength of December sales supporting a year-end rally,” Gary Dilts, senior vice president of global automotive operations at J.D. Power, said in a statement.
The total projected sales for December are 1.03 million vehicles, up from 895,152 in 2008. J.D. Power expects December retail sales to jump 20 percent to 839,600 while fleet sales should drop by 2.5 percent, or 5,000 vehicles.
During the first 11 months of the year, U.S. light vehicle sales plunged 24 percent to 9.4 million and Subaru, Hyundai and Kia are the only brands to have seen growth this year.
J.D. Power has based its forecast on sales activity during the first 17 days of the month.
Source: Automotive News
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