by Calculated Risk on 1/04/2011 04:00:00 PM

Based on an estimate from Autodata Corp, light vehicle sales were at a 12.55 million SAAR in December. That is up 13.1% from December 2009, and up 2.7% from the November 2010 sales rate.

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 December (red, light vehicle sales of 12.55 million SAAR from Autodata Corp).

This is the highest sales rate since September 2008, excluding Cash-for-clunkers in August 2009.

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

Note: dashed line is current estimated sales rate. The current sales rate is still near the bottom of the '90/'91 recession - when there were fewer registered drivers and a smaller population.

This was above most forecasts of around 12.3 million SAAR.