Labor Day Expected to Boost New Vehicle Sales in August, Edmunds Forecasts
Thursday, August 29th, 2019
The car shopping experts at Edmunds forecast that 1,599,264 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in August for an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 16.6 million. This reflects a 14.3% increase in sales from July 2019, and a 7% increase from August 2018.
"New vehicle sales in August look a little healthier than usual thanks to Labor Day weekend falling earlier this year," said Jeremy Acevedo, Edmunds' senior manager of insights. "Market conditions are looking slightly more favorable than earlier this year thanks to a minor dip in interest rates, but we don't expect that to cause a major turnaround. August really just stole sales that are normally attributed to September."
Edmunds estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 14.4 million vehicles in August 2019, with fleet transactions accounting for 13.1% of total sales. An estimated 3.4 million used vehicles will be sold in August 2019, for a SAAR of 39.8 million (compared to 3.4 million—or a SAAR of 39.6 million—in July).
SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER |
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Sales |
August 2019 |
August |
July 2019 |
Change from |
Change from July |
GM* |
274,916 |
240,000 |
235,000 |
14.5% |
17.0% |
Toyota |
243,164 |
223,055 |
209,204 |
9.0% |
16.2% |
Ford* |
207,713 |
217,700 |
191,000 |
-4.6% |
8.8% |
Fiat Chrysler* |
202,798 |
193,718 |
170,000 |
4.7% |
19.3% |
Honda |
162,889 |
147,903 |
141,296 |
10.1% |
15.3% |
Hyundai/Kia |
126,694 |
111,406 |
112,711 |
13.7% |
12.4% |
Nissan |
108,902 |
112,376 |
98,880 |
-3.1% |
10.1% |
VW/Audi |
58,713 |
53,162 |
50,558 |
10.4% |
16.1% |
Tesla |
19,904 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Industry |
1,599,264 |
1,494,502 |
1,399,656 |
7.0% |
14.3% |
*GM sales totals for August 2018 are estimated, FCA, Ford, and GM sales totals for July 2019 are estimated |
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**NOTE: August 2019 had 28 selling days, August 2018 had 27 and July 2019 had 25. |
MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER |
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Market |
August 2019 |
August |
July 2019 |
Change from |
Change from July |
GM |
17.2% |
16.1% |
16.9% |
1.1% |
0.3% |
Toyota |
15.2% |
14.9% |
14.9% |
0.3% |
0.3% |
Ford |
13.0% |
14.6% |
13.8% |
-1.6% |
-0.8% |
Fiat Chrysler |
12.7% |
13.0% |
12.3% |
-0.3% |
0.4% |
Honda |
10.2% |
9.9% |
10.1% |
0.3% |
0.1% |
Hyundai/Kia |
7.9% |
7.5% |
8.1% |
0.5% |
-0.1% |
Nissan |
6.8% |
7.5% |
7.1% |
-0.7% |
-0.3% |
VW/Audi |
3.7% |
3.6% |
3.6% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
Tesla |
1.2% |
- |
- |
- |
- |