43
Valley's vehicle sales up in August
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
August new- and used- vehicle sales in the Mahoning Valley were up 3.7 percent year over year despite the lost Labor Day sales weekend.
Sales went from 6,251 in August 2014 to 6,482 last month, according to data released Thursday by the Automobile Dealers Association of Eastern Ohio.
The data came from titles processed at county title departments by the final business day of each month.
Greenwood Chevrolet in Austintown had the most new and used sales in the month with 305. Taylor Kia of Boardman was in second place with 265 sales, and Sweeney Chevrolet in Boardman had the third-most sales in August with 227.
“August was a great month,” said Greg Greenwood of Greenwood Chevrolet. “There has been really nice momentum in the automotive marketplace. It just continues to build.”
All three top-selling dealerships saw an increase in sales during the month. Greenwood’s went up 7.4 percent; Taylor Kia’s sales went up 8.6 percent; and Sweeney Chevrolet’s sales went up 9.7 percent.
New-vehicle sales were up by 9.8 percent in August, and used sales were slightly down by 0.6 percent.
Greenwood doesn’t think the momentum with auto sales will slow down anytime soon, not now and not in 2016.
“The consumer optimism is much more positive than it was a few years ago,” he said. “2016 is going to be a great year for us.”
This year, Chevrolet unveiled the redesigned, Lordstown-built 2016 Cruze, after the unveiling of the redesigned 2016 Malibu, Volt, Spark and Camaro.
The top three new models were the Chevrolet Equinox with 172 sales, up 23.7 percent from last year; the Chevrolet Silverado with 163 sales, up 81.1 percent; and the Chevrolet Cruze with 121 sales, down 37.3 percent.
The top three used models were: Ford F-150 with 108 sales, up 44 percent from last year; Chevrolet Malibu with 100 sales, down by 0.2 percent; and the Chevrolet Impala with 96 sales, down 5.9 percent from last year.
The top three new makes for the month were Chevrolet, Ford and Kia, and the top three used makes were Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge.
The total new and used sales for the year so far are up 0.2 percent with 104 more sales than this time last year.
New sales are down 1.2 percent so far this year with 244 fewer sales, while used sales are up 1.2 percent with 348 more sales from this time last year.