Despite Rising Gas Prices, February Auto Sales Strong at Estimated 15.5 Million SAAR, says Edmunds.com

  Despite Rising Gas Prices, February Auto Sales Strong at Estimated 15.5
  Million SAAR, says Edmunds.com

Business Wire

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- February 21, 2013

Edmunds.com, the premier resource for automotive information, forecasts that
1,198,538 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in February for an
estimated Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) this month of 15.5 million
light vehicles. The projected sales will be a 14.9 percent increase from
January 2013, and a 4.3 percent increase from February 2012.

“Car sales are persevering despite economic factors on people’s minds like
rising gas prices and the implementation of the payroll tax,” says Edmunds.com
Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell. “Pent-up demand and widespread access to
credit are keeping up car sales momentum.”

SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER
                                                                   
               February                               Change from   Change
Sales Volume   2013           February    January     February      from
               Forecast       2012        2013        2012*         January
                                                                    2013*
GM             218,986        209,306     194,699     4.6%          12.5%
Ford           206,553        178,644     165,863     15.6%         24.5%
Toyota         167,405        159,423     157,725     5.0%          6.1%
Chrysler       143,680        133,521     117,731     7.6%          22.0%
Group
Honda          106,367        110,157     93,626      -3.4%         13.6%
Nissan         102,580        106,731     80,919      -3.9%         26.8%
Industry       1,198,538      1,148,848   1,042,530   4.3%          15.0%
                                                                     
*NOTE: February 2013 had 24 selling days, February 2012 had 25 and January
2013 had 25.
 

Edmunds.com estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 12.4 million vehicles
in February, with fleet transactions accounting for 20.3 percent of total
sales. An estimated 3.35 million used cars will be sold in February, for a
SAAR of 37.2 million (compared to 3.12 million – or a SAAR of 38.7 million –
used car sales in January).

MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER
                                                                   
                                                     Change from    Change
Market Share    February 2013   February   January   February       from
                Forecast        2012       2013      2012           January
                                                                    2013
GM              18.3%           18.2%      18.7%     0.1%           -0.4%
Ford            17.2%           15.5%      15.9%     1.7%           1.3%
Toyota          14.0%           13.9%      15.1%     0.1%           -1.2%
Chrysler        12.0%           11.6%      11.3%     0.4%           0.7%
Group
Honda           8.9%            9.6%       9.0%      -0.7%          -0.1%
Nissan          8.6%            9.3%       7.8%      -0.7%          0.8%
                                                                     

More insight into recent auto industry trends can be found in Edmunds.com’s
Industry Center at http://www.edmunds.com/industry-center/.

For more economic analysis, please see
http://www.edmunds.com/about/authors/lacey-plache.html.

About Edmunds.com, Inc.

At Edmunds.com, we’re committed to helping people find the car that meets
their every need. Almost 18 million visitors use our research, shopping and
buying tools every month to make an easy and informed decision on their next
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Contact:

Edmunds.com Corporate Communications
Jeannine Fallon/Aaron Lewis/Stephanie Mar
Media Hotline: 310-309-4900
www.Edmunds.com
pr@edmunds.com