Edmunds analysts forecast that a total of 17,145,333 new vehicles will be sold in the U.S. this year, marking the fifth consecutive year the national sales figure exceeds 17 million.
The car shopping experts at Edmunds further project that 4,340,488 new cars and trucks will be sold during the fourth quarter of 2019, which will represent a 0.3-percent increase from the third quarter but a 0.8-percent drop from the fourth quarter of 2018. Additionally, traditional year-end holiday sales events are predicted to make dealerships busy in the last few days of this month as automakers cruise into 2020.
Experts at Edmunds are also expecting 2020 to be another strong year for new-vehicle sales, with a projected estimate of 17.1 million sales.
"The fact that new-car sales have stayed this strong for this long really defies the odds, especially given that high-interest rates and record prices squeezed buyers this year," Edmunds Senior Manager of Industry Insights Jeremy Acevedo said. "But if 2019 taught us anything, it's that you can't underestimate the power of a strong economy."
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