U.S. auto sales fell 4.7 percent last month, the most pronounced slowdown of the year and a strong indication that 2017 will put an end to seven straight years of growth.
Auto executives and analysts, who have been anticipating a slowdown, saw no cause for panic. Many expect sales in the important economic sector to top 17 million for the third straight year, an industry first.
"The demand for the light vehicles is still holding up quite well," said George Mokrzan, director of economics for Huntington Bank in Columbus, Ohio. "It's been coming down from a very high level."
Still, sales have dropped for four straight months, the first time that's happened since the economy ground to a halt in 2009. April sales totaled just over 1.4 million, a figure that translates to an annual sales rate of 16.9 million, far below last year's record of 17.5 million. The April decline brought year-to-date sales down by 2.4 percent from a year ago.
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2 comments:
New car and truck prices are out of reach for the average consumer. Wages have not kept up with the prices. Some of the prices I have seen are higher than the price I paid for my home back in 1990! Unless you lease it, the prices are very unaffordable, and who wants to get stuck in a loan contract with high payments for up to ten years? Interest rates are also going up on loans. Because of that, I had to purchase a used car to afford the payments.
It's a better deal. I got a 2015 Honda Accord fully loaded for 25K. A new one with the same featurea was over 32K!!! It's still more than I wanted to pay, but at least I got a good quality car that hopefully will last beyond the loan contract like my last Honda did. My son did the same and traded in his 03 Toyota Matrix for a 2015 Civic also with very low miles and an affordable payment.
Just bought a loaded Cadillac Escalade. Great vehicle and the payments are $0.00 per month - paid cash.
Many dealership are offering 0% loans and several years maintenance on new vehicles. Depending on what interest rates you get charged for a used vehicle, it could be cheaper to buy a new vehicles at 0%.
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