The deliberate diesel emissions cheating scandal continues to slow VW sales.
Projections say that ~1.5 million new cars and light trucks will be sold during May in the U.S. This translates to a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate, aka SAAR, of 17.5 million. The projected sales will be a 2.3% increase from April 2016, but a 5.8% decrease from May 2015. If accurate 2016 is still on track to break last year’s record of 17.47 million new car sales.
Of note, the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal continues to have severe consequences. VW and Audi with projected monthly sales of 43,244 would be down a whopping -18.7% year-over-year.
“It’s easy to look at May’s sales and conclude that the retail car market is losing steam, but it’s too soon to say for sure that auto sales are leveling off,” says Edmunds.com Director of Industry Analysis Jessica Caldwell.
“As in previous years, the summer months will flush out more incentives from automakers and the urgency that shoppers show in responding to these incentives will give the industry a much better sense of how the market is trending,” she cautioned.
Edmunds estimates that the retail SAAR will come in at 14.3 million vehicles in May, with fleet transactions accounting for 18.5% of total sales. An estimated 3.2 million used cars will be sold in May, for a SAAR of 38.5 million compared to 3.4 million – or a SAAR of 38.5 million – used car sales in April.
