Aug. 23, 2013—New-vehicles sales continue to rise and show no evidence of slowing, according to a monthly sales forecast developed jointly by the Power Information Network (PIN) from J.D. Power & Associates and LMC Automotive.
New-vehicle retail sales in August 2013 are projected to come in at 1.27 million units, a 12 percent increase from August 2012 and the highest monthly sales volume since 2006.
J.D. Power expects consumer spending on new vehicles in August will approach $36 billion, the highest level on record.
"The industry as a whole continues to experience a robust improvement in demand, and our forecast for August is looking to be the best month for retail sales that we've seen in the past seven years," said John Humphrey, senior vice president of the global automotive practice at J.D. Power. "Moreover, this strong selling environment is occurring when consumers are spending more on new vehicles than any month on record, which is a further indication of the underlying strength of the sector."
Total light-vehicle sales for August are also expected to increase by 12 percent from August 2012.
This trend has LMC Automotive holding its 2013 forecast for retail light-vehicle sales at 12.8 million vehicles and 15.6 million for total light-vehicle sales.
"The U.S. auto recovery seems to be operating on auto pilot, a welcome stage of stability at a higher pace," said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting at LMC Automotive.
