(September 25, 2013) SANTA MONICA, Calif. — TrueCar, an authority on new car pricing information, trends and forecasting, today released its September 2013 sales and incentives forecast.  The forecast shows several things.

    • For September 2013, new light vehicle sales in the U.S. (including fleet) is expected to be 1,131,333 units, down 4.4 percent from September 2012 and also down 24.5% percent from August 2013 (on an unadjusted basis – September 2013 had 23 sales days, compared to 25 in September 2012).

    • The September 2013 forecast translates into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate ("SAAR") of 15.4 million new car sales, down about four percent from August 2013 and up about four percent over September 2012.

    • Retail sales are down 2.8 percent compared to September 2012 and down 24.4 percent from August 2013.

    • Fleet and rental sales are expected to make up 14.1 percent of total industry sales in September 2013.

    • The industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,382 in September 2013, which represents an increase of 0.6 percent from September 2012 and is down 4.8 percent from August 2013. Incentives are at their lowest percentage since October 2012.

   • Used car sales are estimated to be 3,209,378.  The ratio of new to used is estimated to be 1: 3 for September 2013.

"Labor Day sales clearly pulled ahead from September volume and resulted in a lackluster month. The uncertainty in the financial markets also finally caught up with auto sales, causing some hesitation for big ticket item purchases," said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst for TrueCar.com.

"Nevertheless, the fundamental drivers for the market demand are strong and we should have no problems reaching 15.7 million unit sales this year."