• Car sales' decline is more than four times the drop in light truck sales.

• Domestic vehicle sales' shortfall is double that of imports.

• Chip shortage continues to limit model availability.

The Autodata Corporation reported that light vehicle sales during September declined 6.3% (-25.6% y/y) to 12.27 million units (SAAR) from 13.09 million in August. Sales have fallen by one-third since the April peak of 18.50 million units.

Passenger car sales plunged 15.8% (-32.5% y/y) in September to 2.62 million after an 11.4% August decline. Purchases of domestically-produced cars weakened 19.5% last month (-41.5% y/y) to 1.61 million units after falling 11.9% in August. Down for a fourth straight month, sales of imported autos weakened 9.0% in September (-10.6% y/y) to 1.01 million following a 10.5% August shortfall.

U.S. consumers continue to prefer larger vehicles. Trucks' share of the light vehicle market rose to 78.6% last month. That was increased from a low of 48.1% during all of 2009.

Sales of light trucks declined 3.4% (-23.5% y/y) in September to 9.65 million units after falling 10.9% in August. Purchases of domestically-made light trucks fell 4.2% in September (-26.8% y/y) to 7.23 million units after declining 11.2% in August. Sales of imported light trucks eased 0.8% last month (-11.7% y/y) to 2.42 million, down from April's record 3.30 million units.

Imports' share of the U.S. vehicle market rose last month to 28.0% and remained up from 23.5% in December. It has been rising steadily from 19.9% in 2015. Imports' share of the passenger car market surged to a record 38.5% in September. Imports' share of the light truck market rose to 25.1% last month, up from a recent low of 20.7% in August 2020.

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