Despite chill, positive Chevy Cruze news expected

February 25, 2015 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

February’s frigid temperatures and snowfall kept many potential car buyers in the Mahoning Valley home, but that doesn’t stop area dealers from staying positive.

“We have a lot of positive news down the road,” said Nick Siciliano, general manager for The Honda Store in Boardman. “The weather always hurts us a little, but we are close to where we were last February, so we are happy [with that].”

Despite the rough weather across the Valley and much of the U.S., analysts have positive expectations for sales across the board in February. The analysts have released their sales projections prior to when automakers release the actual numbers, which are slated to come out March 2.

Of high importance to the Valley is General Motors’ Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze. Alec Gutierrez, senior market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, expects a positive February for the compact car.

Specifically, he expects to see a 5 percent to 8 percent growth in sales for the Cruze. Last February, Cruze had its best February ever with 21,836 units sold for a 21.7 percent increase from the previous year.

Cruze incentive spending has been below others even though the number of Cruzes sold has been higher.

For example, in January there were about 18,700 Cruzes sold with $1,800 in incentives per unit while the Nissan Sentra had $2,500 in incentives per unit and sold 14,400 units in January, Gutierrez said.

“I say prospects for the Cruze are good,” he said.

Kelley Blue Book analysts anticipate a growth in the compact car segment of 7 percent from last year. General Motors is expected to have a 5.8 percent increase in sales with KBB’s projection of 235,000 units sold.

Overall, KBB expects to see an 8 percent improvement in auto sales with a projected 1.29 million units expected to sell compared to 1.19 million in February 2014.

Last year, the polar vortex affected sales but storms this February have also had an impact, said Eric Lyman, TrueCar’s vice president of industry insights. “We are still pretty optimistic,” he said.

TrueCar analysts forecast an 8.5 increase in sales overall with 1.29 million units expects to sell. GM is projected to have a 5.7 percent increase in sales with an estimated 234,700 units sold. TrueCar projects all automakers will have an increase in sales.

TrueCar projections show Ford with a 5.5 percent increase, Honda with a 13.8 percent increase and Kia with an 11.1 percent increase. Trucks and sport utility vehicles will continue to do well, but Lyman said the Cruze will too.

“The Cruze is capitalizing on the refresh,” Lyman said.

Spitzer Chevrolet in North Jackson saw a damper in sales this February, but general sales manager David Sabolsky expects to see a better month in March.

“March will be better than both [January and February] together,” he said.

Sabolsky anticipates the impact from auto show deals will spiral into more sales. The Cleveland Auto Show runs March 7-15.

Siciliano foresees the Honda dealership having positive sales month in March, and a positive year with the new Honda HR-V coming in the spring and a new Honda Pilot also coming.

“Everyone is excited,” Siciliano said. “We feel this is going to be a great year.”

Matt Taylor, general manager of Taylor Kia of Boardman, also expects a positive year of sales with the Kia Optima and Sorento as his top sellers. February started out slow for the dealership and picked up toward the end of the month.

“I think it will be a better month overall,” Taylor said.