by Calculated Risk on 8/27/2009 11:57:00 AM

From the Financial Times: ‘Cash-for-clunkers’ sales disappoint Detroit (ht James)

[S]igns are already emerging that overall sales will fall back sharply now that the incentives have expired.
...
[Edmunds.com] estimates that, based on visits to its websites, “purchase intent” is down 11 per cent from the average in June ...
excerpted with permission

It now appears that sales in August were at about a 16 million SAAR (auto sales for August will be released next week).

This follows an 11.22 million SAAR in July. The Cash-for-clunkers program started on July 24th.

If sales in September are 11% below June - that would put sales at under 9 million SAAR - the lowest sales for this cycle, and perhaps at the lowest rate since the early '70s. Of course the program just ended, but it will be interesting to see how much Cash-for-Clunkers cannibalized future sales.