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January Auto Sales Suggest the Good Times Will Keep Rolling in 2013


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SANTA MONICA, CA--January 24, 2013: Edmunds.com, forecasts that 1,045,587 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in January for an estimated Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 15.3 million light vehicles. The projected sales will be a 22.8 percent decrease from December but a 14.5 percent increase from January 2012.

“These results certainly reinforce the exuberance and optimism that filled the air last week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.”

"January's numbers show that vehicle sales stayed strong, even after the holiday ads faded away and the replacement sales following Hurricane Sandy started to dry up," says Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell. "These results certainly reinforce the exuberance and optimism that filled the air last week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit."

SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Sales Volume Jan-13 Forecast Jan-12 Dec-12 Change from Jan 2012* Change from Dec 2012*
GM 195,262 167,962 245,733 16.3% -20.5%
Ford 164,317 136,293 212,902 20.6% -22.8%
Toyota 147,008 124,540 194,143 18.0% -24.3%
Chrysler Group 121,366 101,150 152,367 20.0% -20.3%
Honda 97,416 83,009 132,774 17.4% -26.6%
Nissan 82,235 79,313 99,290 3.7% -17.2%
Industry 1,045,587 912,954 1,355,218 14.5% -22.8%

*NOTE: January 2013 had 25 selling days, January 2012 had 24 and December 2012 had 26.

Edmunds.com estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 12.4 million vehicles in January, with fleet transactions accounting for 19.0 percent of total sales. An estimated 3.21 million used cars will be sold in January, for a SAAR of 40.2 million (compared to 2.70 million -- or a SAAR of 39.5 million -- used car sales in December).

AUTOMAKER PERFORMANCE

In terms of market share, most of the Big Six automakers should expect to be in a better place than they were just a year ago. The only exception is Nissan, whose January share is expected to drop 0.8 percentage points year over year. But it's not all gloom and doom for Nissan: its share is projected to improve 0.6 points over December. Meanwhile, its fellow Japanese competitors Honda and Toyota are expected to see their shares slide 0.5 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively, this month.

MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Change from

Change from
Market Share Jan-13 Forecast Jan-12 Dec-12 January 2012 December 2012
(Percentage pts.) (Percentage pts.)
GM 18.7% 18.4% 18.1% 0.3% 0.6%
Ford 15.7% 14.9% 15.7% 0.8% 0.0%
Toyota 14.1% 13.6% 14.3% 0.4% -0.2%
Chrysler Group 11.6% 11.1% 11.2% 0.5% 0.4%
Honda 9.3% 9.1% 9.8% 0.2% -0.5%
Nissan 7.9% 8.7% 7.3% -0.8% 0.6%

More insight into recent auto industry trends can be found in Edmunds.com's Industry Center at Industry Center.