Posted on 04/30/2020 6:31:36 PM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
Analysts say April will be the worst auto sales month in at least 30 years due to the coronavirus pandemic
SANTA MONICA, CA — April 30, 2020 — The car shopping experts at Edmunds say that April will be a record down month for the auto industry due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, forecasting that 633,260 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. for an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 7.7 million. This reflects a 52.5% decrease in sales from April 2019, and a 36.6% decrease from March 2020. Edmunds analysts note that this is the lowest-volume sales month dating back to at least 1990; the second worst month for sales in the past 30 years was January of 2009, when 655,000 vehicles were sold.
"April auto sales took the biggest hit we've seen in decades," said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds' executive director of insights. "These bleak figures aren't just because consumers are holding back on their purchases — fleet sales are seeing an even more dramatic drop as daily rental business has dried up. Like many other industries, the entire automotive sector is struggling as the coronavirus crisis continues to cripple the economy."
Edmunds experts note that plans for easing shelter-in-place orders across the country in May could open up opportunities for automakers and dealers to capture some deferred demand, but there is still economic uncertainty ahead. "April is likely the bottom for auto sales, so hopefully there's only room for improvement from here," said Caldwell. "But with employment and consumer confidence at new lows, the question remains: Will people be in the position to purchase new cars? Although automakers are doing their part by offering landmark incentives, those might not be enough if consumers cannot recover financially from this crisis."
magine that
It hasn’t even started yet.
The negatives are enormous.
For the first time in my adult life other than some day trading I am 100% our of the stock market.
I hope I’m totally wrong about what’s about to happen.
Automobiles? May should be a bloodbath for the dealers.
I’m actually surprised it’s not lower. Like in most other places, car showrooms in my neck of the woods are closed. If you want to buy a car, you must do it online. Then the car is delivered to your house.
Except for the truly desperate, who’d want to do that?
Probably a great time to work a “good” deal on a vehicle.
The real deals are in antique vehicles, if you got the cash.
” “April is likely the bottom for auto sales, so hopefully there’s only room for improvement from here,””
Dood obviously doesn’t know what’s happening right now. April is just the start of the suck.
Austin Texas had a General Manager who spearheads a Toyota dealership
A Marine, and his success is from honesty. earned leadership, and sharing opportunities to customers
Lesser men just quit
Agreed. As for those losing jobs, everyone I know is still working.
Teachers, lawyers, tech guys, audio visual guys, graphics folks for investment banks, nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors, mechanics...
I don’t mean to sound cold and OF COURSE it will be a big blow to the economy but the average salary of those who lost jobs or are not working right now was probably somewhere around 30k.
That’s 1970s wages.
Still a lot of money people out there who are willing to buy things
I got a cousin in health tech whose company is making a killing right now.
I’m getting more online work than I ever have.
I don’t accept it all cause i’m lazy but i’m getting it :)
And i’m not so sure adding 600 dollars to what is probably an average of 300 dollars unemployment was crazy.
If you were making 600 and are now getting 900, why would you look to make 600 again until you had to?
People still want and need cars. There will be some pent up demand. It will countered by some lesser buying power and some justified caution on the buyer’s part. The best is that it is a wash, but hopefully the negative is not too big.
It will be interesting to see what the “quarantine” does to people’s perspective on life and about what is truly important. If there are some major shifts there that result in less “consumerism,” strange things could happen, indeed.
I had my car serviced at a dealership today. While I was waiting in the lobby, not a single customer shopping for a car came in.
I was driving around today looking for new business and checking my customers and arrived in Richmond, CA to the sight of thousands of new cars being stored.
I have never seen cars in any of the places I visited until today.
I want $5000 under MSRP and when you go back to talk to your sales manager tell him to come out and dance for me. Dance!
If so, and to the extent many young Americans eschewed an auto payment + gas + insurance for Uber etc, perhaps if people have jobs and if dealers keep offering great sales and terms, we will see an uptick in purchases from that segment of society.
Hey that makes sense.
I’ve done the math and it’s just never cheaper for me to use uber or others instead of having my own car.
I would spent about 800 a month on those services in regular times.
My free Trump dollars could go towards a down payment!
“due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic”
No. No. No, no, no.
It’s due to the planned, orchestrated “response” to the pandemic (aka dempanic).
The media wants to dehumanize it and make it the fault of the “pandemic” (dempanic).
It is the result of decades of deterioration in the American psyche.
We are soft. We are weak. Our leaders are ineffective, including Donald Trump.
There is no rational reason for what is happening to be happening.
Blame political correctness, blame lawyers, blame your grandma’s cherry pie. No matter how you shake it, the USA is gone. Maybe not today, but tomorrow or the next day.
The nation we reluctantly live in today bears no resemblance to that of the founding fathers. I weep for their memory and I ask their forgiveness as I sit here, with the knowledge of all mankind contained in this machine at my fingertips, and allow this travesty to happen.
I am humiliated to be a part of destroying what they created, and I am approaching the point of just not caring anymore. The other option is to kick some ass, meaning bullets and blood, to take our lives back.
Geez, no kidding.
Car dealerships are closed!
We took a drive to Lo g Beach L. A. Harbor the other week end never seen so many cars just sitting in my lfe down there
Same here.
My last oil change a couple weeks ago was at my dealership. Their free coffee was shut down because someone might get sick. Their free soda pop was shut down because someone might get sick. The free popcorn was shut down because someone might get sick.
There was maybe 30% as many customers around compared to normal. As I sat in their nice, comfortable waiting room, with the big windows, upholstered chairs, and big-screen TV (which was off and I didn’t bother to turn on [because who knows, maybe I’ll get sick touching the remote control]) the place was like it had a pall of doom hanging over it compared to the normal atmosphere.
I hate the people that have allowed this to happen, and made this happen. Deliberately. I hate them with every fiber of my being.
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