SANTA MONICA, Calif. — TrueCar.com, the authority on new car pricing, trends and forecasting, today released its August 2011 sales and incentives forecast. The forecast shows the following:
- For August 2011, new light vehicle sales in the U.S. (including fleet) is expected to be 1,076,989 units, up 8.0 percent from August 2010 and up 2.0 percent from July 2011 (on an unadjusted basis)
- The August 2011 forecast translates into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (SAAR) of 12.2 million new car sales, flat from 12.2 million in July 2011 and up from 11.5 million in August 2010
- Retail sales are up 4.9 percent compared to August 2010 and up 3.1 percent from July 2011
- Fleet and rental sales are expected to make up 20 percent of total industry sales in August 2011
- The industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,663 in August 2011, which represents an increase of 3.0 percent from July 2011 and down 3.9 percent from August 2010
- Used car sales* are estimated to be 4,128,336, up 4.7 percent from August 2010 and down 8.2 percent from July 2011. The ratio of new to used is estimated to be 1:4 for August 2011
“The auto industry is a mixed bag this year, due to economic uncertainty; sales have improved compared to last year, but nowhere near the potential we had expected,” said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insights for TrueCar.com. “The strongest correlation to new car sales is the Dow Jones Industrial Average and it was shaky and nervous in August.”
Forecasts for the top seven manufacturers for August 2011:
Unit Sales Forecast | ||||
Manufacturer | August 2011 Forecast | % Change vs. July 2011 | % Change vs. August 2010 | |
Chrysler | 121,725 | 8.7% | 22.2% | |
Ford | 176,577 | -2.1% | 12.2% | |
GM | 221,503 | 3.1% | 19.8% | |
Honda | 81,790 | 1.6% | -24.8% | |
Hyundai/Kia | 106,499 | 1.4% | 23.7% | |
Nissan | 89,190 | 5.4% | 16.1% | |
Toyota | 128,047 | -2.1% | -13.7% | |
Industry | 1,076,989 | 1.7% | 8.0% | |
Market Share Forecast | ||||
Manufacturer | August 2011 Forecast | July 2011 | August 2010 | |
Chrysler | 11.3% | 10.6% | 10.0% | |
Ford | 16.4% | 17.0% | 15.8% | |
GM | 20.6% | 20.3% | 18.5% | |
Honda | 7.6% | 7.6% | 10.9% | |
Hyundai/Kia | 9.9% | 9.9% | 8.6% | |
Nissan | 8.3% | 8.0% | 7.7% | |
Toyota | 11.9% | 12.4% | 14.9% | |
Incentive Spending Forecast | |||||
Manufacturer | August 2011 Incentives | % Change vs. July 2011 | % Change vs. August 2010 | Total Spending | |
Chrysler | $3,511 | 2.7% | -5.6% | $415,965,907 | |
Ford | $2,722 | 1.6% | -8.3% | $480,684,472 | |
GM | $3,207 | 0.5% | -8.0% | $710,409,501 | |
Honda | $2,101 | 1.1% | -7.6% | $171,867,022 | |
Hyundai/Kia | $1,361 | 6.6% | -26.0% | $144,966,397 | |
Nissan | $2,903 | 10.9% | -6.5% | $258,920,220 | |
Toyota | $2,405 | 2.2% | 18.0% | $307,989,701 | |
Industry | $2,663 | 3.0% | -3.9% | $2,858,877,234 | |
“Product is king, not incentives, and this month really proves that,” said Kristen Andersson, Automotive Analyst at TrueCar.com. “Sales of Hyundai/Kia are up nearly 24 percent from last year, while incentives dropped by 26 percent, but on the other end of the spectrum, Toyota sales are down nearly 14 percent, even as they increased incentives by 18 percent.”
TrueCar.com also projects sales down to the brand level, which can be viewed in its entirety at the Truth Blog on TrueCar.com. Brand level incentive spending forecasts are available upon request.
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.
*Used car sales figures include sales from franchise dealerships, independent dealerships and private party sales
About TrueCar, Inc.
TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive solutions provider focused on changing how cars are sold by providing a significantly better customer experience while helping qualified dealer partners to gain incremental market share and reduce costs. As a transparent, visual publisher of new car transaction data, TrueCar.com price reports help both dealers and consumers to agree on the parameters of a fair deal by providing an accurate, comprehensive and simple understanding of what others actually paid for the identically equipped new car over the last 30 days both locally and nationally.
TrueCar, Inc. works with a national network of nearly 5,000 Certified Dealers that provide up-front, no-haggle, competitive pricing to assist some of the nation’s largest and most well respected membership and service organizations to meet the auto buying needs of their members and customers. These partnerships include American Express, AAA, USAA and more than 60 others. Collectively these audiences represent over 1M in-market customers each month.
TrueCar, Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and has offices in San Francisco. The company was founded in 2005 and has been profitable since 2009. With nearly 200 percent year-over-year growth TrueCar has driven over 270,000 sales and is developing a suite of transaction oriented products and services centered on transparency and radical clarity as a result of comprehensively analyzing market data and information. You can follow TrueCar on Twitter and become a fan of TrueCar on Facebook.
About TrueCar Data
TrueCar obtains data directly from numerous sources including automotive dealers, technology companies, data aggregators, and analytics companies within the automotive space. We also acquire vehicle configuration data, customer and dealer incentives data, financing and loan data, vehicle registration and insurance data, and much, much more. TrueCar is insatiable about data with our goal to find 100% of all purchase transactions, even if that means finding the same transaction multiple times from multiple sources within the car-buying ecosystem. Our data is among the most timely and comprehensive in the industry, as we are able to process most car sales within a week of the actual sales date, and have a substantial fraction on the site within 48 hours of the actual sale. TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.
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