A mild sales slowdown is expected to continue for July, as forecasters expect U.S. auto sales to fall below July 2016.
Through the first half, U.S. auto sales were down 2 percent from a year ago, to about 8.5 million, analysts said. That’s not too bad, considering last year was an all-time sales record.
U.S. automakers have also shrugged off the decline in sales in part because most of the slowdown this year has been in less-profitable sales to fleet customers, including daily rent-a-car companies.
While that’s true, it isn’t only fleet sales that have declined. According to J.D. Power and LMC Automotive, new-vehicle retail sales, not counting fleet sales, are expected to fall in July for the fourth month in a row. That’s a more accurate measure of true consumer demand, the research and consulting firms said.
Total U.S. auto sales including fleet are expected to be about 1.4 million in July, J.D. Power and LMC Automotive said in their latest auto sales forecast. Retail-only sales are expected to be 1.2 million, down 1.7 percent from July 2016.
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