July Auto Sales Take Flight As SAAR Hits 17.55 Million

As has been the trend in 2015, auto sales are soaring. To make matters better, a number of automakers actually performed better than expected. The excellent July has led to a SAAR sitting at 17.55 Million, which is the highest since October of 2000.

The surge in summer sales numbers was led in part by the “big three” from Detroit who all outpaced their expectations.  It’s easy to be optimistic about retail automotive sales right now.

The following are numbers of year-over-year percentage improvement by some of the top automakers:

FCA U.S. +6.2%

Ford +5%

GM +6.4%

Honda +7.7%

Hyundai +7.6%

Nissan +7.8%

Kia +7.7%

Tesla Motors +13.3%

Subaru +10.5%

Toyota +0.6%

Volkswagen +8.5%

There is a positivity from both an automaker and dealer standpoint right now. Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president, U.S. marketing, sales and service spoke about what’s going right from a Ford perspective. In a statement, LaNeve said, “We continue seeing even stronger demand for our newest products, especially F-150, Explorer, Edge, Mustang and Transit. With continued improvement in inventory, F-Series retail momentum continued building in July.”

Also speaking from a “big three” automaker in a press release was Kurt McNeil, GM’s U.S. vice president of sales operations. In a statement, McNeil said, “The second half of 2015 is off to a great start, with industry sales above expectations. GM has been steadily growing its commercial sales and retail market share, thanks to our strong truck and crossover portfolio. We feel very good about our truck strategy heading into the late summer and fall, when those segments usually heat up. We are the only manufacturer that has completely revamped its entire lineup of large SUVs, and mid-size, light duty and heavy duty pickups.”

It’s been largely reported trucks and crossover SUVs are part of the sales prowess of 2015. One automaker feeling that very strongly is Subaru. The automaker posted a record sales month. Thomas J. Doll, president and chief operating officer, Subaru of America said in a press release, “We are delighted to have achieved a new monthly sales record. Jeff Walters, SVP of sales for Subaru of America also added in the same press release, “We have seen record numbers of consumers considering the Subaru brand. Consumers are not just shopping a single model. Almost 60 percent of our sales this year have been to customers new to the brand and we continue to work closely with our parent company to maximize production to meet the demand.”

In the direct-to-consumer sales realm, Tesla Motors reported their best quarter ever. The company reported they delivered 11,507 Model S sedans during the second quarter, a 52 percent increase from the same time period last year. The company expects further increased sales when they release their Model X crossover later this year.