(October 25, 2012) SANTA MONICA, Calif. — TrueCar.com trends and forecasting, today released its October 2012 sales and incentives forecast showing that for October  new light vehicle sales in the U.S. (including fleet) are expected to be 1,137,744 units, up 11.5 percent from October 2011 and down 4.2 percent from September 2012.

Other TrueCar findings:

    • The October 2012 forecast translates into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate ("SAAR") of 14.9 million new car sales, up from 13.3 million in October 2011 and down from 14.94 million in September 2012
    • Retail sales are up 8.6 percent compared to October 2011 and down 3.9 percent from September 2012
    • Fleet and rental sales are expected to make up 18.1 percent of total industry sales in October 2012
    • The industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,353 in October 2012, which represents an decrease of 5.6 percent from October 2011 and decrease of 2.9 percent from September 2012
    • Used car sales are estimated to be 3,220,457*, up 10.8 percent from October 2011 and down 8.3 percent from September 2012.  The ratio of new to used is estimated to be 1:3 for October 2012

"New car sales are on automatic pilot. October was a robust start to Q4 sales with most manufacturers posting double digit gains while continuing to lower incentives spending," said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst at TrueCar.com. "We expect this recovery momentum to continue into the next year, with 2013 sales reaching 15.5 million units."

Forecasts for the top eight manufacturers for October 2012: