U.S. Car Deliveries Dropped In September, But Still On Track For All Time Record

Overall light vehicle deliveries in the United States dropped by 0.7 per cent in September, to 1.434 million units.

Still, from the beginning of the year, sales are up 0.3 per cent in 2016 compared to the first nine months of 2015, with analysts expecting 17.74 million passenger cars to be delivered across the United States at the end of the year. If such a figure is reached, it will beat out the 17.5 million deliveries of last year which was a record when posted.

Senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book, Karl Brauer, told Automotive News that this year, manufacturers have relied heavily on incentives and fleet sales to bolster their sales and delivery figures. “The new car market is no longer growing, which means automakers now have to measure success in terms of market share, transaction prices, incentive levels and profitability,” he said.

While deliveries across the industry are up, not all automakers are enjoying record sales. As a matter of fact, Ford Motor’s (including Lincoln) September retail sales fell by 8.4 per cent compared to last year, GM’s dropped by 0.6 per cent, Honda Motors (including Acura) fell by 0.1 per cent, the BMW Group slipped 5.2 per cent, and the Volkswagen brand by a massive 7.8 per cent (the VW Group was down 3.2 per cent).

Among the industry’s winners last month were Toyota (including Lexus) who enjoyed a 1.5 per cent rise in deliveries. Nissan (including Infiniti) meanwhile posted a 4.9 per cent gain and the Audi brand’s deliveries rose 1.6 per cent representing the automaker’s 83rd straight month of increased deliveries.