Another month closer to the end of the year, and another slump for the new-car market. Beating the slump were Nissan, Suzuki and Volkswagen, while BMW, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Subaru all had minor losses. It was a slow month, and put the US Automotive industry at a total of 10.4 million new-car sales for 2010.
November is not usually a big car sales month anyway, but to see an 8.10% drop over October surprised me a little. I expected the slump to be closer to 5%. Most people are back into the swing of work, and the temperatures are starting to drop, meaning people don’t want to be outdoors as often – much less walking around a car lot. Also, Christmas shopping and Thanksgiving traveling mean a lot fewer people on car dealers’ lots as well.
Either way, I expect to see another slump in December, with sales of luxury cars to be up or at least even, just as they were in November. We probably won’t see another big month until tax returns start showing up in February or March of 2011.
Check out Road Reality in early January, 2011 for December’s numbers and a wrap-up of the year.
by John Suit