Those charts are nonsense. Auto sales were manipulated by two things: first, the federal government has gone on buying sprees to replace all government cars and trucks pushing the buys to Government Motors. Second, the cars and trucks are considered sold when they are shipped to the dealers .... drive by some of the Government Motors dealers and look at the inventory. The same cutesy tricks are used the other statistics and charts.
They pushed a ton of cars down the pipeline. They are sitting on the dealers’ books (and their lots.). In April I bought a new Chevy truck. The dealer had 200 trucks on his lot. I know this dealer. He got a great deal to take a lot of his summer quota early. But he also knows you cannot push on a string.