April Car Sales Continue Record-Setting Pace in 2016

Staff Report From Georgia CEO

Friday, April 29th, 2016

Edmunds.com, the premier destination for car shopping, forecasts that 1,514,855 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in April for an estimated Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of 17.5 million. The projected sales will be a 4.8 percent decrease from March 2016, but a 4.3 percent increase from April 2015. This month's sales are poised to eclipse the April record of 1,500,648 new car and truck sales set in 2005, and 2016 is on track to shatter last year's full-year record of 17.5 million sales.

"Even though Q1 ended with a relatively lackluster March the industry is still as strong as ever, and this month's sales will only reinforce that strength," said Edmunds.com Director of Industry Analysis Jessica Caldwell. "Considering that April is typically the calm before the storm of summer sales, there's every reason to believe that 2016 will be a year for the history books."

SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

           

Sales Volume

April 2016
Forecast

April 2015

March
2016

Change from April
2015

Change from March
2016

GM

262,963

269,056

252,128

-2.3%

4.3%

Ford

231,577

221,652

253,064

4.5%

-8.5%

Toyota

213,182

203,329

219,842

4.8%

-3.0%

Fiat Chrysler

197,759

189,027

213,187

4.6%

-7.2%

Honda

145,589

130,068

138,221

11.9%

5.3%

Hyundai/Kia

127,229

121,291

133,589

4.9%

-4.8%

Nissan

124,011

109,848

163,559

12.9%

-24.2%

VW/Audi

45,607

46,836

45,306

-2.6%

0.7%

Industry

1,514,855

1,451,812

1,591,227

4.3%

-4.8%

*NOTE: April 2016 had 27 selling days, April 2015 had 26 and March 2015 had 27.

Edmunds.com estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 14.4 million vehicles in April, with fleet transactions accounting for 18.4 percent of total sales. An estimated 3.3 million used cars will be sold in April, for a SAAR of 38.2 million (compared to 3.6 million – or a SAAR of 37.1 million – used car sales in March).

MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

           

Market Share

April 2016
Forecast

April 2015

March
2016

Change from April
2015

Change from March
2016

GM

17.4%

18.5%

15.8%

-1.2%

1.5%

Ford

15.3%

15.3%

15.9%

0.0%

-0.6%

Toyota

14.1%

14.0%

13.8%

0.1%

0.3%

Fiat Chrysler

13.1%

13.0%

13.4%

0.0%

-0.3%

Honda

9.6%

9.0%

8.7%

0.7%

0.9%

Hyundai/Kia

8.4%

8.4%

8.4%

0.0%

0.0%

Nissan

8.2%

7.6%

10.3%

0.6%

-2.1%

VW/Audi

3.0%

3.2%

2.8%

-0.2%

0.2%