Continuing a year-long trend, sales of new cars and trucks showed a strong rebound in August.
All Detroit-based automakers reported double-digit sales increases for the month reaching an aggregate total annualized pace of 14.4 -million units and domestic sales of 11.54 million, according to Brian Turner, director and chief strategist for Catalyst Strategic Solutions, a subsidiary of Catalyst Corporate Credit Union in Plano, Texas.
Much of the improvement is due to sell-downs in advance of the new model year as dealers spend less to move the 2012 models off the showroom, Turner wrote in his latest analysis on vehicle sales.
Turner said most believe the trend will be short-lived but figures will reach a 2012 performance of 14.3 million units with retail sales forecasted to hit 11.4 million units, which are slight improvements from 2011.
“Through the first half of the year, vehicle loans have increased 7.2% with new vehicle loans increasing 5.6% and used vehicle loans up 8.0%,” Turner said. “The overall increase contrasts to a 0.4% increase in 2011 and contractions in each of the previous three years.”
Turner said the increase in loans should help to retain the credit union industry's 9.0% consumer loan market share, which has been on the rise after hitting a low of 8.8% earlier this year. Its most recent peak was 9.6% in 2009.
