Valley auto sales down slightly in August

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning Valley’s new and used auto sales were down slightly in August.

Total sales were 5,063 compared with 5,122 reported in August 2015, according to data released by the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealer’s Association.

The data are derived from county title departments by the final business day each month.

Just new sales were down year-over-year by 154 to 2,806.

Used sales in August were up year-over-year by 79 to 2,193.

For the year so far, both new and used sales are down by 2,109 to 35,990 sales.

Just used sales are down by 1,023 so far year over year and new sales are down by 1,202 sales.

The top-selling new models in August were the Chevrolet Silverado with 202 sales; the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze with 174 sales; and the Chevrolet Equinox with 141 sales.

The top-selling used models were the Chevrolet Cruze with 102 sales; the Chevrolet Malibu with 65 sales and the Ford Escape with 62 sales.

Greenwood Chevrolet of Austintown posted the most new and used sales with 343. Sweeney Chevrolet of Boardman came in second with 252 new and used sales, and Stadium Chevrolet Cadillac GMC of Salem came in third with 248 sales.

The top new makes were Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota.

Overall, industry sales across the U.S. dropped by 4 percent in August to 1.5 million vehicles.

Last year, the auto industry had its best year with 17.5 million sales. Analysts did expect to see this year’s sales surpass last year’s record breaker, but now the industry seems to hitting a plateau.