An unprecedented seven-year streak of annual U.S. auto salesgrowth finally came to an end, yet carmakers and their investorsaren’t fazed.

Automakers capped their first year of shrinking industrywidedeliveries since the recession with Wall Street bidding up theirshares. Plenty of signs point to another healthy -- albeitsoftening -- U.S. market in 2018.

Here are some of the reasons why -- falling sales and all --carmakers aren’t sounding alarm bells just yet.

Trucks on Top

While total light-vehicle sales slipped in 2017, severalautomakers curbed lower-margin deliveries of car models to rentalcompanies that tend to be heavily discounted.