US car sales are expected to end 2003 on a high note, with strong December sales of new cars and trucks helped by a fresh round of incentives and an improving economy, according to Reuters.
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US car makers and importers are due to announce December sales results on Monday January 5.
Industry analysts told Reuters that car sales should hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 17.9 million vehicles in December, pushing sales for all of 2003 to roughly 16.6 million vehicles – carmakers are due to release December sales figures on Monday.
Reuters said that, while such a result would be down from last December’s 18.2 million rate, which was driven by General Motors’ year-end drive to maintain its US market share, it would still be stronger than November’s results and taken as a sign of healthy demand among consumers.
“December will be a big month, fuelled by ever higher incentives,” Merrill Lynch analyst John Casesa said in a research note cited by Reuters. “In a stock market that wants to believe in a strong economic recovery, December auto sales will provide a supporting data point.”
The news agency noted that, as has been typical for the past few years, domestic and foreign carmakers have piled on the deals in the final two weeks of December to boost their totals, although to a lesser degree than in the past.
Given all the dealing, analysts told Reuters that sales could end up higher than their estimates depending on how hard carmakers decide to push. Casesa told the news agency he expects GM’s December sales to be flat to down 5% compared with December last year, Ford sales to be down 10% and Chrysler’s sales to be down about 3%.
Reuters said if sales for all of 2003 end at 16.6 million, it would be a small decline from 2002’s total of 16.8 million, but also the weakest year since 1998. Much of that decline came in the first half of the year, and sales have run at higher rates since August as US consumers saw their incomes grow and their job prospects strengthen, the report added.
