by Calculated Risk on 5/02/2017 02:57:00 PM

Based on a preliminary estimate from WardsAuto (and some CR calculations), light vehicle sales were at a 16.79 million SAAR in April.

That is down 3% from April 2016, and up 1.6% from last month.


Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the historical light vehicle sales from the BEA (blue) and an estimate for April (red, light vehicle sales of 16.79 million SAAR mostly from WardsAuto).

This was below the consensus forecast of 17.2 million for April.

After two consecutive years of record sales, it looks like sales will be down or move sideways in 2017.

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

Note: dashed line is current estimated sales rate.