Strong December car deals give shoppers reason to celebrate

(December 21, 2013) SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Car buyers are not shying away from the surge of holiday deals, and with two weeks to go this month there's still enough time to capitalize on a deal before the calendar rolls into 2014, says Edmunds.com.

Edmunds.com forecasts shoppers will snatch up 1,425,818 new cars and trucks in the U.S. in December for an estimated Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 16.1 million. This will be a nearly 15 percent increase from November 2013, but about a five percent increase from December 2012. Edmunds projects that 2013 will see15.66 million total new car sales, which would be a strong eight percent increase over 2012.

"December has become one of the best times of the year to buy a new car, and there's good reason for that," says Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell. "Smarter shoppers will especially zero in on leftover 2013 model year vehicles, which dealers will be more than happy to unload with big discounts and rock-bottom interest rates."

According to Edmunds.com's New Car Deals of the Month page, shoppers can cash in on a $2,250 incentive plus an additional $500 in bonus cash on a 2013 Ford F-150. Or, for the more environmentally conscious, the 2014 Chevy Volt is available to finance at 0.0 percent for 48 months.

SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Sales Volume Dec-13 Forecast Dec-12 Nov-13 Change from Dec 2012* Change from Nov 2013*
GM 247,686 245,733 212,060 0.8% 16.8%
Ford 225,543 212,902 189,705 5.9% 18.9%
Toyota 201,188 194,143 178,044 3.6% 13.0%
Chrysler Group 164,954 152,367 142,275 8.3% 15.9%
Honda 141,385 132,774 116,507 6.5% 21.4%
Nissan 112,326 99,290 106,528 13.1% 5.4%
Hyundai/Kia 104,508 98,613 101,416 6.0% 3.0%
VW/Audi 53,556 58,846 44,363 -9.0% 20.7%
Industry 1,425,818 1,355,216 1,242,290 5.2% 14.8%

*NOTE: December 2013 had 25 selling days, December 2012 had 26 and November 2013 had 26.

 

MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Market Share Dec-13 Forecast Dec-12 Nov-13 Change from December 2012
(Percentage pts.)
Change from November 2013
(Percentage pts.)
GM 17.4% 18.1% 17.1% -0.8% 0.3%
Ford 15.8% 15.7% 15.3% 0.1% 0.5%
Toyota 14.1% 14.3% 14.3% -0.2% -0.2%
Chrysler Group 11.6% 11.2% 11.5% 0.3% 0.1%
Honda 9.9% 9.8% 9.4% 0.1% 0.5%
Nissan 7.9% 7.3% 8.6% 0.6% -0.7%
Hyundai/Kia 7.3% 7.3% 8.2% 0.1% -0.8%
VW/Audi 3.8% 4.3% 3.6% -0.6% 0.2%