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Economy in Brief
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U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Weaken in February
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The price of regular gasoline strengthened to $2.71 per gallon (11.9% y/y) in the week ended March 1...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Carol Stone, CBE October 2, 2018
Sales of light vehicles totaled 17.44 million units (SAAR) in September, up 4.3% on the month but down 4.0% on the year. August's sales had been 16.72 million. The September results were the strongest since November 2017, when they were 17.64 million.
Passenger car sales rose 5.3% last month to 5.41 million units; despite this rebound, the longer-term trend in car sales put them down 18.9% from a year ago. Sales of domestically made cars almost exactly reversed their August decline, as they rose 3.8% in September to 3.91 million units, off 19.1% from a year ago. Sales of imported passenger cars rose 8.9% to 1.49 million units, but that is still down 18.8% from September 2017.
Light trucks, which of course include SUVs and widely used pick-up trucks, advanced 3.9% in September to 12.03 million units from 11.58 in August and were up 4.7% from September 2017's 11.49 million units. Sales of domestically made light trucks rose 2.8% to 9.63 million units, although that was up just 2.0% from the year-ago volume. Sales of imported light trucks reversed an August decline as they surged 8.6% in September (16.9% y/y) to 2.40 million, a new record.
Trucks' share of the U.S. vehicle market eased slightly to 69.0% last month from August's record 69.3%; this compared to 63.3% during all of last year and 48.8% during all of 2012.
Imports' share of the U.S. vehicle market rose to 22.4% last month. Imports' share of the passenger car market increased to 27.5%. Imports share of the light truck market went up to 20.0% from 19.1% in August.
U.S. vehicle sales figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. Additional detail by manufacturer is in the INDUSTRY database.
Sep | Aug | Jul | Sep Y/Y % | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 17.44 | 16.72 | 16.77 | -4.0 | 17.23 | 17.55 | 17.48 |
Autos | 5.41 | 5.14 | 5.32 | -18.9 | 6.33 | 7.10 | 7.73 |
Domestic | 3.91 | 3.77 | 3.93 | -19.1 | 4.58 | 5.20 | 5.64 |
Imported | 1.49 | 1.37 | 1.39 | -18.8 | 1.75 | 1.90 | 2.10 |
Light Trucks | 12.03 | 11.58 | 11.45 | 4.7 | 10.90 | 10.44 | 9.74 |
Domestic | 9.63 | 9.37 | 9.14 | 2.0 | 9.00 | 8.75 | 8.37 |
Imported | 2.40 | 2.21 | 2.32 | 16.9 | 1.90 | 1.69 | 1.38 |