Newsroom
Vehicle sales uptick reinforce NAFCU outlook
July 6, 2012 – June's better-than-expected vehicle sales data suggest that the slowdown in the spring was partly weather-related, and NAFCU expects steady but modest growth for the remainder of the year.
Research firm AutoData Corp. reported that total vehicle sales in June increased from May's rate of 13.8 million units to 14.1 million units on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis.
NAFCU Staff Economist Curt Long called the data "solid, but unspectacular." Though the numbers surpassed expectations, "it does nothing to quash fears of slowing economic growth," he said.
Car sales were up from 6.9 million units to 7 million units, annualized, while sales of light trucks increased from May's level of 6.9 million units to 7.1 million units on an annualized basis.
Over the past 12 months, sales were up 21.7 percent. Long said the year-over-year numbers reflect dramatic improvement since production was impacted by the Japanese tsunami in the spring of 2011.
All six of the largest automakers reported year-over-year sales increases in June. Toyota led the way with a 60.3 percent sales gain, followed by Honda (48.8 percent), Nissan (28.2 percent), Chrysler (20.3 percent), General Motors (15.5 percent) and Ford (7.1 percent).
The domestic manufacturers' share of the total vehicle market grew from 45.5 percent in May to 46.7 percent in June. The import share of sales from all manufacturers fell from 22.4 percent to 21.3 percent.
While June's data show that the vehicle sales market has yet to fully recover, the numbers also show that consumers are eager to replace aging vehicles and that auto makers are responding with higher incentives, Long said. "Even though consumer confidence has been on the wane in light of the debt crisis in Europe and a flagging labor market, the share of households looking to make a vehicle purchase in the next six months is up, according to the Conference Board."
Looking ahead, auto sales are expected to continue improving slowly in the second half of the year, but further deterioration in the labor market poses the greatest downside risk, the economist added.
For more, see NAFCU's Macro Data Flash (login required).
Share This
Related Resources
Add to Calendar 2024-05-02 14:00:00 2024-05-02 14:00:00 Mastering Resilience in Incident Response Plans About the Webinar An Incident Response (IR) plan is crucial for guiding credit unions through major incidents efficiently and effectively. However, many IR plans lack resilience, making them less adaptable to the evolving threat landscape. Join us for our webinar Mastering Resilience in Incident Response Plans where DefenseStorm cyber experts Elizabeth Houser and James Bruhl will delve into the importance of resiliency within cybersecurity IR plans. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn how to: Ensure IR plan accessibility so that all team members with assigned roles are prepared for effective incident response. Conduct efficient and regular reviews to ensure roles and responsibilities are current, tools are relevant, and compliance requirements are met. Implement and utilize tabletops to regularly test the effectiveness of your IR plan. Enhance preparedness, efficiency, and confidence among responders. View On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Mastering Resilience in Incident Response Plans
preferred partner
DefenseStorm
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-30 14:00:00 2024-04-30 14:00:00 State of Consumer Credit: How Behaviors have Shifted and Trends in US Bankcard Benchmarks About the Webinar In an era marked by volatility and evolving credit trends such as historic inflation and the rise of BNPL, credit unions must adapt to mitigate risks effectively. Join the experts at FICO in exploring how to leverage FICO Scores to enhance competitiveness while maintaining stability and compliance. Key Takeaways: Learn about the latest in consumer credit behaviors and score distributions since the pandemic Take a closer look at major US bankcard trends in comparison to the credit union industry, such as average card spend, balance, missed payments and more. View On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
State of Consumer Credit: How Behaviors have Shifted and Trends in US Bankcard Benchmarks
preferred partner
FICO
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-25 14:00:00 2024-04-25 14:00:00 ChatGPT: What AI can do for you! ChatGPT has been created with one main objective – to predict the next word in a sentence, based on what's typically happened in the gigabytes of text data that it's been trained on. Did you ever hear of the saying, “People fear the unknown?” Artificial intelligence scares people, but it is the future, and you need to understand the tools and resources it offers. It’s also about saving time, that’s what technology and in this case, artificial intelligence can do for you. If you want to save time and have a better quality of life, this training is for you. Once you give ChatGPT a question or prompt, it passes through the AI model and the chatbot produces a response based on the information you've given and how that fits into its vast amount of training data. It's during this training that ChatGPT has learned what word, or sequence of words, typically follows the last one in a given context. During this webinar, ChatGPT: What AI can do for you, you’ll discover the background, purpose, usability, and the pros and cons. Don't miss this opportunity! Key Takeaways Learn the background of AI Understand the purpose of AI Identify the pros and cons Register Now $295 Members | $395 Nonmembers(Additional $50 for USB)One registration gives your entire team access to the live webinar and on-demand recording until April 25, 2025Go to the Online Training Center to access the webinar after purchase » Who Should Attend NCRMs Risk titles Education Credits NCRMs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
ChatGPT: What AI can do for you!
Credits: NCRM
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-25 14:00:00 2024-04-25 14:00:00 Unifying Two Different Executive Benefits Programs About the Webinar In part one we discussed how to retain key positions during a time of transition. In part two, we will look at how to combine executive benefits programs from two different organizations into a single high-performing program. Evaluating each program includes many different facets, from strategy and expense to performance and servicing. This session will provide important considerations, whether or not you have pending M&A activity. Key Takeaways: Is the plan design both retentive and efficient? Is the benefit expense properly mitigated? Does the legal agreement reflect the board’s intent? View On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Unifying Two Different Executive Benefits Programs
preferred partner
Gallagher
Webinar
Get daily updates.
Subscribe to NAFCU today.