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April sales volume expected to up over last year with extra sales day
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
With one extra sales day this year, April auto sales are expected to increase up to 4 percent year over year.
“This has been the best April since 2000,” said Eric Lyman, vice president of industry insights at TrueCar.
But on a daily selling-rate basis, TrueCar analysts actually expect to see a slight decrease of 0.6 percent in sales.
In total, new sales are expected to hit 1.5 million.
Automakers will report their sales Monday.
TrueCar analysts say retail sales, or sales to individual customers, will come in at 1.2 million in April. Kelley Blue Book analysts also noted the strength of retail sales in April. KBB projects total sales of 1.51 million. Out of that, 80.3 percent are expected to come from the retail side – but that’s down from the 80.9 percent reported last year.
“March was a little disappointing,” said Tim Fleming, analyst at Kelley Blue Book. “I think we will get back on track here in April.”
April had one extra selling day this year over last year.
Both KBB and TrueCar expect to see Honda perform well in April because of its soaring car sales, which analysts say is surprising given the current consumer demand for larger vehicles. The Honda Civic, which is the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze’s top competitor, is poised to have sales come in at 30,000 or more.
“It is very popular,” Fleming said. “It’s getting great reviews.”
The new Chevrolet Cruze just started to ship out to dealerships at the end of March, and analysts say it may be a few months before sales of the compact car really start to ramp up.
“I look for good things from the Cruze,” Fleming said.
Overall, both KBB and TrueCar expect to see a decline in sales for General Motors because of the automaker’s cutback on fleet sales to improve its residuals.
Barry Gonis, general manager of Spitzer Chevrolet in North Jackson, believes his sales this year will break last year’s with the “great rebates” GM is offering.
“The Chevy Cruze and Malibu are such a beautiful design, and the payments aren’t that much more from the old body style,” Gonis said.
Gonis’ customers are liking the extra room in the back seat of the new Cruze.
“They are coming, and we are selling them as they come in,” Gonis said of the new Cruze.
The new Cruze rolled out slowly to the dealership, but now that Spitzer has some, the car is “looking good,” and the payments “are phenomenal,” Gonis said.