by Calculated Risk on 5/03/2010 03:28:00 PM

Based on an estimate from Autodata Corp, light vehicle sales were at a 11.21 million SAAR in April. This is up 21.8% from April 2009 (when sales were at the lowest level in 30 years), and down 4.6% from the March sales rate that was driven by incentives.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the historical light vehicle sales (seasonally adjusted annual rate) from the BEA (blue) and an estimate for April (red, light vehicle sales of 11.21 million SAAR from Autodata Corp).

The second graph shows light vehicle sales since the BEA started keeping data in 1967.

Auto sales have recovered from the low levels of early 2009, but are still below the lowest point of the '90/'91 recession (even with a larger number of registered drivers).

This was slightly below most forecasts of around 11.5 million SAAR.