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New-car sales picking up speed
By GRACE WYLER
YOUNGSTOWN
New-vehicle sales in the Mahoning Valley rose in April, as positive economic news and sunny weather put local car buyers in a spending mood.
Car dealers in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties sold 1,702 new cars last month, up from 1,527 cars sold in April 2009.
Total new-car sales for the first four months of 2010 increased slightly from a year earlier, despite lagging sales in January and February.
Total sales were 5,745 at the end of April, compared with 5,636 for the same period in 2009.
“April was a beautiful month,” said David Sabolsky, general sales manager for Spitzer Chevrolet in North Jackson. “The weather was finally on our side.”
Sabolsky said the increase in sales can be attributed, in part, to remarkably low interest rates and an improved outlook on the economy.
“We are getting a new cycle of people that want to buy,” Sabolsky said. “People are hearing positive things, and that is getting customers out.”
The Chevrolet Malibu was the most-popular new car for the sixth consecutive month. Local dealers sold 189 new Malibus, compared with 128 sold in April 2009. The Ford Focus was the second-best-selling new vehicle, followed by the Chevrolet Cobalt, the Honda Accord and the Honda Civic.
April sales decreased slightly compared with March, when Mahoning Valley auto dealers sold 1,833 new cars.
Dealerships typically see high March sales due to spring incentives, Sabolsky said.
He expects sales will continue to rise during the summer, as new incentives and rebates take effect.
Dealers likely will continue to see this year’s sales increase compared with 2009 due to improved consumer confidence, said Mark Fabian, general sales manager at Greenwood Chevrolet in Austintown.
“I would say that 2010 looks good,” Fabian said. “It is going to take a long time to get back to the number we saw three years ago, but we are moving in the right direction.”