More than 1.5 million new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. during August for an estimated Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 17.2 million, according to the latest forecast. This is a ~1% increase from July 2016, but a -2.5% decrease from August 2015.
“The summer isn’t delivering explosive sales like we saw last year, but the industry is still on pace to set an annual sales record,” says Edmunds.com Executive Director of Industry Analysis Jessica Caldwell.
Edmunds projects that 11,694,452 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. through the end of August, up 0.8% from the 11,604,525 sales recorded through the first eight months of 2015’s record-breaking year.
The retail SAAR should come in at 14.6 million vehicles in August, with fleet transactions accounting for 14.7% of total sales. An estimated 3.3 million used cars will be sold in August, for a SAAR of 39.0 million, compared to 3.4 million – or a SAAR of 38.9 million – used car sales in July.
