Total and new light-vehicle sales in November are expected to increase 7% on a selling-day-adjusted basis, according to a monthly sales forecast.
Despite a couple of calendar curveballs—November has only four selling weekends for the first time since 2012 and has the fewest selling days (23) of any month since September 2013—the industry continues to show strength, with retail light-vehicle sales approaching 1.1 million units and total light-vehicle sales nearing 1.3 million units this month, PR Newswire writes.
Retail Light-Vehicle Sales
American light retail vehicle sales in November 2015 are projected to hit 1,078,200 units, down from 1,094,858 in November 2014. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate for retail sales in November 2015 is expected to reach 14.2 million units (SAAR), up from a selling rate of 13.7 million units a year ago and the highest for the month since November 2003 (14.2 million units).
SAAR is a rate adjustment that attempts to remove the seasonal variations in the data. Most data will be affected by the time of the year. Adjusting for the seasonality in data means more accurate relative comparisons can be drawn from month to month all year. Retail transactions are the most accurate measure of true underlying consumer demand for new vehicles sales in the United States. To manage higher transaction prices, customers are increasingly opting for leases and long-term loans with term lengths of 72 months and longer. The industry is on track to set new records for both types of sales for the full year 2015. On a calendar year-to-date basis through the first two weeks of November, lease penetration has reached 27.7%, which is an increase of 2 percentage points from the full year 2014. Long-term loan penetration has increased 2.2 percentage points to 34.4% over the same period.
