New Vehicle Sales Expected to Dip Year-Over-Year, but Remain Strong in September

Staff Report

Thursday, September 27th, 2018

Edmunds forecasts that 1,392,434 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in September for an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17.0 million. This reflects a 5.4 percent decrease in sales from August 2018 and an 8.3 percent decrease from September 2017.

"Vehicle replacement demand following Hurricane Harvey bolstered auto sales last September, and Hurricane Florence has had a very limited impact on auto sales this month, which are the primary reasons why we're seeing this year-over-year decline," said Jeremy Acevedo, Edmunds' manager of industry analysis. "With that said, a SAAR of 17 million is certainly not an unhealthy number — September is still shaping up to be a robust month for sales."

Edmunds data reveals that September marks the first time that the SAAR has pushed above 17 million in two months. Experts note that this boost in sales may be attributed to automakers loosening the reins on incentives as they get ready to navigate the model-year selldown.

"Labor Day sales typically help get the month of September off to a solid start," said Acevedo. "Now that we're heading into the fourth quarter and more 2019 model year vehicles are making their way to showrooms, automakers and dealers are likely making more of a concerted effort to address lagging inventories."

SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Sales
Volume

September
2018 Forecast

September
2017

August
2018

Change from
September 2017

Change from
August 2018

GM*

236,396

279,397

240,000

-15.4%

-1.5%

Toyota

208,658

226,632

223,055

-7.9%

-6.5%

Ford

199,432

221,643

217,700

-10.0%

-8.4%

Fiat Chrysler

185,995

174,266

193,718

6.7%

-4.0%

Honda

137,145

142,722

147,903

-3.9%

-7.3%

Nissan

112,358

139,932

112,376

-19.7%

0.0%

Hyundai/Kia

101,181

109,475

111,406

-7.6%

-9.2%

VW/Audi

49,710

51,420

53,162

-3.3%

-6.5%

Industry

1,392,434

1,519,093

1,472,125

-8.3%

-5.4%

*GM sales totals for August 2018 are estimated

**NOTE: September 2018 had 25 selling days, September 2017 had 26, and August 2018 had 27.

Edmunds estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 14.4 million vehicles in September 2018, with fleet transactions accounting for 15.2 percent of total sales. An estimated 3.3 million used vehicles will be sold in September 2018, for a SAAR of 39.6 million (compared to 3.4 million — or a SAAR of 39.7 million — in August).

MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Market
Share

September
2018 Forecast

September
2017

August
2018

Change from
September 2017

Change from
August 2018

GM

17.0%

18.4%

16.3%

-1.4%

0.7%

Toyota

15.0%

14.9%

15.2%

0.1%

-0.2%

Ford

14.3%

14.6%

14.8%

-0.3%

-0.5%

Fiat Chrysler

13.4%

11.5%

13.2%

1.9%

0.2%

Honda

9.8%

9.4%

10.0%

0.5%

-0.2%

Nissan

8.1%

9.2%

7.6%

-1.1%

0.4%

Hyundai/Kia

7.3%

7.2%

7.6%

0.1%

-0.3%

VW/Audi

3.6%

3.4%

3.6%

0.2%

0.0%