Car sales settle into a groove in April, says Edmunds.com

(April 27, 2014) SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Edmunds.com forecasts that 1,401,606 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in April for an estimated Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 16.2 million. The projected sales will be an 8.7 percent decrease from March 2014, but a 9.1 percent increase from April 2013.

The forecast anticipates that the auto industry will enjoy its best April performance since dealers sold 1,444,587 vehicles in April 2006.

"April's numbers suggest that car shoppers are still motivated to buy new cars, erasing any doubts raised by lackluster sales at the beginning of the year," says Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell. "The sales performance the last two months is more in line with what we projected for 2014, and there's every reason to believe that car shoppers will continue to keep this pace."

Edmunds.com estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 13.4 million vehicles in April, with fleet transactions accounting for 17.3 percent of total sales. An estimated 3.08 million used cars will be sold in April, for a SAAR of 35.4 million (compared to 3.43 million — or a SAAR of 34.9 million — used car sales in March). 

SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Sales Volume Apr-14 Forecast Apr-13 Mar-14 Change from Apr 2013* Change from Mar 2014*
GM 248,713 237,646 256,047 4.7% -2.9%
Ford 221,787 211,984 243,417 4.6% -8.9%
Toyota 200,748 176,160 215,348 14.0% -6.8%
Chrysler Group 175,945 156,638 194,915 12.3% -9.7%
Honda 132,739 130,999 133,318 1.3% -0.4%
Hyundai/Kia 116,220 110,871 121,782 4.8% -4.6%
Nissan 103,566 87,847 149,136 17.9% -30.6%
VW/Audi 50,187 46,801 50,963 7.2% -1.5%
Industry 1,401,606 1,284,628 1,535,133 9.1% -8.7%

*NOTE: April 2014 had 26 selling days, April 2013 had 25 and March 2014 had 26.

MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Market Share Apr-14 Forecast Apr-13 Mar-14

  Change from Apr. 2013 

Change from March 2014 (Percentage pts.)
GM 17.7% 18.5% 16.7% -0.8% 1.1%
Ford 15.8% 16.5% 15.9% -0.7% 0.0%
Toyota 14.3% 13.7% 14.0% 0.6% 0.3%
Chrysler Group 12.6% 12.2% 12.7% 0.4% -0.1%
Honda 9.5% 10.2% 8.7% -0.7% 0.8%
Hyundai/Kia 8.3% 8.6% 7.9% -0.3% 0.4%
Nissan 7.4% 6.8% 9.7% 0.6% -2.3%
VW/Audi 3.6% 3.6% 3.3% -0.1% 0.3%