Newsroom

November 04, 2014

October vehicle sales up 7% year over year

The pace of total vehicle sales in October increased to 16.5 million seasonally adjusted, annualized units and are "expected to continue supporting the economy throughout the year," according to NAFCU Staff Economist Doug Christman.

September's vehicle sales rate was 16.4 million annualized units. Sales levels increased 7 percent from a year ago.

"Dropping gasoline prices have helped spur demand for light trucks and SUVs over the last few months," said Christman, analyzing data published by Autodata Corp., in a NAFCU Macro Data Flash report. "Pent-up demand, a strengthening labor market and improved access to credit continues to support sales."

Car sales increased from September's level of 7.7 million annualized units to 8 million annualized units in October. Sales of light trucks decreased from 8.7 million annualized units in the previous month to 8.5 million annualized units in October.

Five of the six largest automakers reported increases in their year-over-year sales numbers. Chrysler reported the strongest gain in sales with 21.7 percent, followed by Nissan (13.3 percent), Toyota (6.9 percent), Honda (5.8 percent) and General Motors (0.2 percent). Ford sales declined 1.8 percent.