US auto sales accelerated to the best pace since October 2007 as major automakers posted double digit gains on Wednesday and forecast more growth in the months to come.
Total industry sales rose 17 per cent when compared with August last year while the sales pace jumped to an adjusted, annual rate of 16.1 million, according to Autodata.
That’s up from 15.8 million in July and the first time the sales pace topped 16 million since the US auto industry sank into a deep downturn that led to the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler.
“The news is even more positive than the overall numbers imply, as individual car buyers, not fleet sales, are behind the surge,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with automotive site Edmunds.com.
“The stars are aligned for strong retail sales: great new product, widely available cheap credit, and a desire and need by car buyers to purchase a new vehicle to replace their likely aged one.”
Ford economist Ellen Hughes-Cromwick said that while it was not time to get “irrationally exuberant,” recoveries in the housing and jobs market and a historically high average age for vehicle on the road “should give us some good support going forward.”
