December promises to be the strongest month in auto sales. It is expected to set an annual record with 17.5 million sales in 2015, according to a monthly sales forecast developed jointly by J.D. Power and LMC Automotive.
The car retail sales are projected to reach 1,400,100 units, while total light-vehicle sales are expected to reach 1,712,200, both a 6% increase on a selling-day adjusted basis, compared with December 2014. Both sales volumes are also the highest for any month since July2005, when retail sales hit 1.64 million units and total sales 1.80 million units.
“We now have greater confidence that record sales in 2015 will lead to yet another volume record in 2016,” Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting at LMC, said in a statement.
This year also may be the fifth time in six years that industry sales have grown by at least 1 million vehicles from the prior year. December traditionally is a strong car and truck sales month with consumers taking advantage of year-end and holiday deals.
The companies expect people to spend over $44 billion on new vehicles in December and $437 billion in 2015. Both figures are records.
