Auto-sales trade publisher Edmunds estimated that 1,380,771 new vehicles were sold in the U.S. during the month of July for a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 16.5 million. This reflects a 9.3-percent decline in sales from June 2019, but a 0.5-percent growth from July 2018.
Though July is anticipated to be the first month this year to exhibit an improvement in monthly auto sales compared to 2018, the car-shopping experts say this is not necessarily sign of a turnaround.
"A lot of people are enjoying vacations and family time in July, so it's generally not a strong month for auto sales," Edmunds' Senior Manager of Insights Jeremy Acevedo said in a press release. "The fact that automakers could eke out a slight gain is encouraging but not necessarily indicative of a positive trend. The extra selling day makes things look a little better than they really are, and we still believe sales will continue to trend downward through the back half of the year."
SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER | ||||||
Sales Volume | July 2019 Forecast | July 2018 | June 2019 | Change from July 2018 | Change from June 2019 | |
GM* | 232,320 | 220,000 | 255,785 | 5.6% | -9.2% | |
Toyota | 202,495 | 208,770 | 201,887 | -3.0% | 0.3% | |
Ford* | 189,858 | 192,743 | 217,000 | -1.5% | -12.5% | |
Fiat Chrysler | 167,230 | 170,970 | 206,083 | -2.2% | -18.9% | |
Honda | 137,516 | 138,602 | 135,901 | -0.8% | 1.2% | |
Hyundai/Kia | 115,243 | 104,864 | 122,890 | 9.9% | -6.2% | |
Nissan | 105,214 | 108,792 | 123,504 | -3.3% | -14.8% | |
VW/Audi | 48,018 | 49,741 | 51,134 | -3.5% | -6.1% | |
Tesla | 16,792 | - | - | - | - | |
Industry | 1,380,771 | 1,374,007 | 1,522,817 | 0.5% | -9.3% | |
*GM sales totals for July 2018 are estimated, GM & Ford sales totals for June 2019 are estimated | ||||||
**NOTE: July 2019 had 25 selling days, July 2018 had 24 and June 2019 had 26. |
Edmunds also forecasts the retail SAAR will come in at 14.2 million vehicles in July 2019.
MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER | |||||
Market Share | July 2019 Forecast | July 2018 | June 2019 | Change from July 2018 | Change from June 2019 |
GM* | 16.8% | 16.0% | 16.8% | 0.8% | 0.0% |
Toyota | 14.7% | 15.2% | 13.3% | -0.5% | 1.4% |
Ford* | 13.8% | 14.0% | 14.2% | -0.3% | -0.5% |
Fiat Chrysler | 12.1% | 12.4% | 13.5% | -0.3% | -1.4% |
Honda | 10.0% | 10.1% | 8.9% | -0.1% | 1.0% |
Hyundai/Kia | 8.3% | 7.6% | 8.1% | 0.7% | 0.3% |
Nissan | 7.6% | 7.9% | 8.1% | -0.3% | -0.5% |
VW/Audi | 3.5% | 3.6% | 3.4% | -0.1% | 0.1% |
Tesla | 1.2% | - | - | - | - |