Truck manufacturers, suppliers and upfitters have suffered through two years of drastically declining sales causing many to go out of business. As the economy begins to rebound, some demand improvement has occurred and is expected to continue and increase gradually over the next two years.
An executive from Huntington Bank, a leading auto lender in Ohio, says higher trade-in values can help lower auto financing for consumers. Trade-ins are worth more today because of tight used-vehicle volumes. Consumers then don't have to borrow as much to finance a new vehicle purchase.
Toyota's recall of 7.7M vehicles so far for unintended acceleration is resulting in increased scrutiny of NHTSA complaint records to determine if the problems should have been caught earlier. USA TODAY's analysis found Toyota to have the highest proportion of complaints in this category at 11.7% which should have sent up red flags sooner at NHTSA.
Women are increasingly part of new vehicle showroom traffic with early 2010 numbers at 40%+ headed toward the 2006 peak of 45% and already surpassing 2009's 32%. Marketing aimed at practical considerations of female consumers could add 800-950K vehicle sales in 2010.
Rental car demand is down 15% but customer dissatisfaction is up 21%. The hard sell for unnecessary insurance and roadside services along with outrageous prices for gas and tolls are partially responsible.