Last Update on : March 5, 2008
US light & luxury car sales decline in February 2008
Light vehicle sales reached 1.17 million units in February, compared with 1.25 million units sold in 2007, with or without consideration of the leap year. For the first two months of the year, sales are behind the same period last year by about 5.6 percent.
For the month of February, Detroit 3 sales were off by about 15 percent after adjustment for the extra sales day, and Asia brands were down 4.4 percent for the month versus one year ago. Honda, Mazda and Mercedes managed gains in sales versus last year in an otherwise difficult month in which Toyota and all divisions of the Detroit 3 saw sales declines for the month.
Small cars managed a slight 0.1 percent increase in sales and CUVs, usually up by double digit percentages were up just 1.4 percent after adjustment for the extra selling day. Traditional SUVs, down 28 percent, large cars down 23 percent and pickup trucks, down 19 percent reflected the weakness in economic growth.
Pickups as well as vans (down 16 percent) lost sales to the construction, which has been slowed by the difficulties of sub prime mortgage difficulties and the resulting slowdown in new home construction. Continued correction in the broad equities markets contributed to a 9 percent drop in luxury car sales for February.
NADA chief economist Paul Taylor expects auto sales to finish the year down 2.5 percent from the 2007 sales performance. In his annual economic forecast presented last month at the NADA convention in San Francisco, Taylor forecast stronger sales in the second half of 2008, as inventory adjustment in the first quarter of 2008 makes for a slow launch for the year.
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