TrueCar.com Forecasts New and Used Auto Sales and Incentives Spending for December

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec. 28, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueCar.com, the authority on new car pricing, today released its December 2010 sales and incentives forecast.  The forecast shows the following:

• For December 2010, new light vehicle sales in the U.S. (including fleet) is expected to be 1,105,147 units, up seven percent from December 2009 and up almost 27 percent from November 2010 (on an unadjusted basis)
• The December 2010 forecast translates into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (SAAR) of 12.12 million new car sales, nearly flat from 12.26 in November 2010 and up from 11.23 in December 2009
• Retail sales are up 26 percent compared to November 2010 and up nine percent from December 2009
• Fleet and rental sales are expected to make up 19 percent of total industry sales in December 2010
• The industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,721 in December 2010, which represents a jump of seven percent from November 2010 and an increase of one percent from December 2009
• Used car sales* are estimated to be 2,632,400, up five percent from November 2010 and down about three percent from December 2009.  The ratio of new to used is estimated to be 3:1 for December 2010

"Consumer confidence is rising and there is a lot of pent-up demand in the market," said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insight for TrueCar.com. "The retail market continues to improve which bodes well for the automotive industry heading into 2011."

This year industry sales will close at 11.5 million units sold, up 10.5 percent from 2009, as predicted by TrueCar.com.  For 2011, TrueCar.com's forecast for light vehicle sales remains at 12.7 million units, an increase of 10.4 percent from 2010.

Forecasts for the top seven manufacturers for December 2010:

TrueCar.com also projects sales down to the brand level, which can be viewed in its entirety at the Truth Blog on TrueCar.com.  Brand level incentive spending forecasts are available upon request.

TrueCar.com bases its forecast on actual transaction data.  The transaction data based forecast is refined by other current and historical factors that impact vehicle sales, including: sales, inventory, incentives, fuel prices, and macro economic data (major stock market indexes, consumer confidence, new home starts, and CPI).  TrueCar.com does not adjust for selling days in year-over-year percentage change calculations.

About TrueCar

TrueCar is the authority in new car prices.  We show car buyers and car dealers how much people actually paid for a particular car in a specific local area.  With TrueCar pricing, both new car buyers and new car dealers can know at any time what is considered a good or great price on a new car. Consumers no longer need to walk into a dealership partially informed and fully suspicious – using TrueCar they walk in knowing the price of a fair deal. Dealers benefit by TrueCar's real-time, unbiased information about marketplace pricing, helping them price cars for increased sales, and ultimately gaining market share over other dealers.  Our innovative new car pricing service is offered free of charge on our website at www.truecar.com, on our mobile site at mobile.truecar.com, and via syndication of our tools and pricing data to leading automotive research sites throughout the web.

About TrueCar Data

TrueCar obtains data directly from numerous sources including automotive dealers, technology companies, data aggregators, and analytics companies within the automotive space.  We also acquire vehicle configuration data, customer and dealer incentives data, financing and loan data, vehicle registration and insurance data, and much, much more.  TrueCar is insatiable about data with our goal to find 100% of all purchase transactions, even if that means finding the same transaction multiple times from multiple sources within the car-buying ecosystem.  Our data is among the most timely and comprehensive in the industry, as we are able to process most car sales within a week of the actual sales date, and have a substantial fraction on the site within 48 hours of the actual sale. TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein is for noncommercial use on "as-is, as available" basis and may be used for informational purposes only.  TrueCar makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information contained in this press release and the results of the use of such information, including but not limited to implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.  The information contained in this press release may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.  Neither TrueCar nor any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or respective partners, officers, or directors, employees or agents shall be held liable for any damages, whether direct, incidental, indirect, special or consequential, including without limitation lost revenues or lost profits, arising from or in connection with your use or reliance on the information presented in this press release.

*Used car sales figures include sales from franchise dealerships, independent dealerships and private party sales

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Jesse Toprak

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SOURCE TrueCar.com