Sales are recording solid gains, but production slowdowns capping dealer stock in a growth market – a market that ostensibly still is climbing out of the trough caused by the pandemic and supply-chain issues - suggest the industry overall wants to maintain profit margins but also has a high level of uncertainty about 2025 and does not want to be in a position of having to make sudden, bigger cuts if the market weakens at some point this year.
emphasis added
Click on graph for larger image.This graph shows actual sales from the BEA (Blue), and Wards forecast for February (Red).
On a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis, the Wards forecast of 15.9 million SAAR, would be up 1.9% from last month, and up 1.5% from a year ago.