A month ago, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants warned that it would be difficult for the market to continue its string of year-over-year gains during the final four months of 2024 where new light vehicle sales are concerned.
A recent update from DAC shows that the market for September came in at an estimated 157,000 units, a decline of 3.6% from the same month in 2023. On a year-to-date basis at the end of the third quarter, they said the market is now at 1.41 million units — up a respectable 8.1% from the first nine months of 2023.
“Two reasons take a front row in explaining the market decline in September,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner of DAC, in a statement. “First, September 2023 was one of the initial months when improved vehicle availability was widely seen in the market, so it does present a fairly strong comparable.”
“Second,” he continued, “the timing of the Labour Day holiday this year means that September 2024 actually had three less selling days than September 2023.”
When considering these two factors, along with the market’s slight decline, the situation makes more sense — though DAC said it is still “somewhat disappointing.” The Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate or SAAR for the month came in at 1.78 million, which they noted was “broadly in line with what we saw in July and August.”
From a year-to-date perspective, certain performances are noteworthy: Volkswagen leads the market in percentage gain, having increased 55.8% in 2024. Subaru and Mazda continue their strong years, up 31.7% and 26.0%, respectively. And General Motors leads the market on a volume basis, jumping a healthy 9.7% from 2023.
“We should also note that a number of the luxury brands are continuing to have a difficult 2024 — (but) more on that in a future release,” said DAC.
