TrueCar Sees New Vehicle Sales To Grow 3.2% In April

TrueCar, Inc.

disclosed that it expects total new vehicle sales to reach 1.502 million units in April this year. That included fleet deliveries, and represented 3.2% YOY growth. According to the company, it would be the highest volume for the month after the year 2000. TrueCar said that the month's seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) for total light vehicle sales was projected to be 17.4 million units for the month, up from 16.75 million units a year ago. The company said that overall sales fell 0.6 percent on a daily basis given one less day compared to the last year month. Excluding fleet sales, the retail deliveries of new cars and light trucks should rise 4 percent to 1.234 million units on steady consumer demand in the United States. TrueCar's VP of Industry Insights, Eric Lyman, commented, "April is typically a transitional month wedged between higher-volume March and May, but this year dealerships appear to have benefited from an early Easter that fell in March. It's reassuring when retail sales grow faster than the overall industry pace as it indicates consumers remain very active and engaged in the new vehicle market." He added further that "Incentives have ticked up, but backed off from the post-recession high seen in the third quarter of 2015. This is a metric we monitor closely as the longest auto sales expansion in the modern era continues. The bottom line is that economic conditions remain favorable and there are still many consumers who need to replace aging cars and trucks." The company also disclosed that Incentive spending by automakers averaged an estimated $3,021 per vehicle in April. That represented a 13.1 percent increase from a year ago, but slipped 2.7 percent from the preceding month in 2016. The stock traded 0.7% down on Wednesday.