New car sales stay up in June

After a relatively strong showing in May, new vehicle sales in June kept the momentum going.

Estimates from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants show 161,901 units sold in June – up 12.6 per cent from the same month last year.

“The strong June means that we have now had eight consecutive months of year-over-year sales gains, with double-digit percentage increases in the last two months.” He continued

Furthermore, the seasonally adjusted annual rate is now at 1.64 million, the highest since February and ahead of last year which finished at under 1.5 million units.

Year to date, an estimated 813,000 units have been sold, up 7.6 percent from 756,000 units sold in the first half of 2022.

Before getting too excited, DesRosiers noted that sales in the first half of 2018 were 1.04 million units, indicating that things are not quite back to what was seen in the good old days.

General Motors led the way in the first half with 127,561 units sold, up 15.7 per cent from last year.

In the U.S., June’s total new light-vehicle sales were up 19.9 per cent year over year. The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), came in at 15.7 million, an increase of 20.2 per cent from last year’s 13 million and up 4.0 per cent from May’s 15.1 million pace.