Automotive sales volumes in the United States for the month of March are expected to show gains over the previous years (2023 and 2022), according to Cox Automotive’s Auto Market Weekly Summary released on April 1.
The forecast is for 1.45 million sales in March, which would represent an increase of 4.5% year-over-year. This suggests that March 2024 will generate sales that are a stone’s throw away from the 10-year average for the month, which Cox Automotive described as “historically one of the strongest sales months in a given year.”
“Healthy sales are being supported by significantly improved new-vehicle inventory levels,” said the company in its update. “At the beginning of March, the total supply of available new vehicles was up more than 50% compared to last March, according to the latest vAuto Live Market View data.”
Also worth noting is how consumer confidence measures showed mixed results, though Cox Automotive pointed to signs of improvement. They said the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index was down 0.1% in March, as views of the current situation improved, “but views of the future declined.
“Consumer confidence was up 0.7% year-over-year,” said the company in its update. “Plans to purchase a vehicle in the next six months increased slightly from last month but was flat versus 2023.”
Based on another measure — the sentiment index from the University of Michigan — consumer sentiment improved in March as the index was up 3.8% for the month, and up 28.1% compared to 2023 levels. “The consumer’s view of buying conditions for vehicles increased to the highest level since June 2021 as views of interest rates were less negative,” said Cox Automotive.
At the same time, fuel prices were up in March, with the national average price for unleaded gas from AAA climbing 6.2% from the end of February to US $3.54 per gallon (around 3.79 litres) as of March 28. That is an increase of 1% compared to the same period in 2023.
