Newsroom

January 06, 2014

Vehicle sales drop after Thanksgiving

Jan. 7, 2014 – Vehicle sales fell in December, unable to match the surge in sales around the Thanksgiving holiday and hampered further by poor weather in the following weeks, according to a NAFCU Macro Data Flash.

"With the decline in monthly data, year-over-year auto sales declined 0.5 percent and total vehicle sales were up by 1.0 percent," NAFCU Senior Economist Curt Long wrote, analyzing data from Autodata Corp. However, he said, "overall, vehicle sales are expected to improve as the economy strengthens in 2014."

Total vehicle sales in December fell to 15.4 million annualized units from 16.4 million in November. However, four of the six largest automakers saw increases in their year-over-year sales numbers, with Nissan experiencing the biggest gain, 10.5 percent. Also in December, the U.S. brand share of total vehicle sales increased from 43.6 percent in November to 44.5 percent in December.