TrueCar Forecasts May Auto Sales and Incentives Spending
Incentives at Highest Point in More Than a Year*
SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueCar.com (www.truecar.com), the authority on new car pricing, forecasted today that May 2010 light vehicle sales (including fleet) in the U.S. is expected to be 1,050,290 units, an increase of 7.0% from April 2010 and a leap of 13.6% from this time last year (on an unadjusted basis). May’s forecast translates into a SAAR level of 11.0 million new car sales.
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According to the experts at TrueCar.com, industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,915 in May, which represents 8.3% increase from April 2010 and a 1.7% increase from this time last year.
TrueCar.com is reporting the following about sales and incentive spending in May:
- Of all individual brands, Cadillac, Subaru, Buick, and Hyundai are expected to post the largest increase in sales over last year.
- Honda incentives reach their highest levels ever at $2,345 per unit resulting in the biggest year-over-year increase amongst all automakers at 26.2%.
- Automobile manufacturers spent more than $3 billion in various incentive programs in May, which is the highest since August, 2008.*
“Despite the recent volatility in the stock market, consumer demand for vehicles was steady in May, and we forecast selling rates to be higher through the remainder of 2010,” said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insight for TrueCar.com. “Clearly, the high level of incentives is playing a large role in consumers’ return to showrooms. As we go into the heart of the summer sales season, manufacturers will have to strike a balance between selling a great deal and selling a great car. A well optimized incentive strategy can easily determine whether a manufacturer is profitable in these volatile times.”
Forecasts for the top seven manufacturers for May:
Unit Sales Forecast |
||||
Manufacturer |
May 2010 Forecast |
Change vs. April 2010 |
Change vs. May 2009 |
|
Chrysler |
94,737 |
-1.0% |
19.9% |
|
Ford |
174,235 |
7.1% |
12.0% |
|
GM |
191,674 |
4.7% |
1.4% |
|
Honda |
118,928 |
4.6% |
20.9% |
|
Nissan |
76,326 |
19.7% |
13.1% |
|
Toyota |
166,986 |
5.6% |
9.4% |
|
Hyundai/Kia |
84,142 |
13.6% |
33.6% |
|
Market Share Forecast |
||||
Manufacturer |
May 2010 Forecast |
April 2010 |
May 2009 |
|
Chrysler |
9.0% |
9.8% |
8.6% |
|
Ford |
16.6% |
16.6% |
16.8% |
|
GM |
18.3% |
18.7% |
20.5% |
|
Honda |
11.3% |
11.6% |
10.6% |
|
Nissan |
7.3% |
6.5% |
7.3% |
|
Toyota |
15.9% |
16.1% |
16.5% |
|
Hyundai/Kia |
8.0% |
7.5% |
6.8% |
|
Incentive Spending Forecast |
|||||
Manufacturer |
May 2010 |
Change vs. April |
Change vs. May |
Total Incentive |
|
Chrysler |
$4,086 |
11.5% |
6.9% |
$387,102,894 |
|
Ford |
$3,307 |
11.0% |
15.0% |
$576,170,819 |
|
GM |
$3,433 |
3.0% |
0.9% |
$658,025,905 |
|
Honda |
$2,345 |
17.4% |
26.2% |
$278,927,462 |
|
Nissan |
$2,930 |
-1.8% |
-2.7% |
$223,625,256 |
|
Toyota |
$1,950 |
2.1% |
16.3% |
$325,676,719 |
|
Hyundai/Kia |
$2,076 |
2.2% |
-33.5% |
$174,706,258 |
|
Industry |
$2,915 |
8.3% |
1.7% |
$3,061,554,594 |
|
TrueCar 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 car dealers, respected dealer management system (DMS) providers, and well-known data aggregators 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.
* Excluding Cash for Clunkers in August 2009
SOURCE TrueCar.com
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