Sales of light vehicles decreased 0.8% (-2.6% year-on-year) in February to 16.57 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR). This is the weakest vehicle sales since February 2015.

An 8.1% drop in auto sales (-11.6% y/y) to a 5.02 million unit pace drove the decline. In January sales increased 2.1%. Purchases of domestically-produced cars fell 9.0% (-11.0% y/y) to 3.65 million units. Sales of imported cars were down 5.5% (-13.0% y/y) to 1.37 million.

Light-truck sales grew 2.8% (1.9% y/y) last month to an 11.55 million unit rate, reversing some of January's 7.9% drop. Purchases of domestically-made light-trucks gained 2.1% (0.3% y/y) to 9.15 million units. Sales of imported light trucks jumped 4.8% (8.3% y/y) to 2.39 million.

Trucks' share of the U.S. vehicle market rebounded to a record high 69.7% (the Autodata series goes back to 1990; the Bureau of Economic Analysis data, which goes back to 1976, hit a record 70.5%).

Imports' share of the U.S. vehicle market rose last month to 22.7%, with the auto share up to 27.3% and the light truck market increasing to 20.7%, a nine-and-a-half year high.

U.S. vehicle sales figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. Additional detail by manufacturer is in the INDUSTRY database.