Strong Washington area sales got even stronger in 2013, up 2.6%
Area car sales rose 3 percent in 2013, and trucks were up 2 percent. For the fourth quarter, car sales dropped slightly, by 2.3 percent. Truck sales were up 2 percent for the year and down 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter. Washington area drivers continue to buy more cars than trucks, with cars making up 54 percent of sales last year, up a fraction of a percent from 2012. Nationally, 49 percent of vehicles sold in 2013 were cars.
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Washington area auto sales never experienced the effects of the recession as much as the rest of the nation. So 2013 sales here reflected modest gains in an already robust market. Sales for the year rose 2.6 percent, which included a small dip in the fourth quarter. U.S. sales, by contrast, were up 7.5 percent for the year and 6 percent for the quarter. But, here again, they had much farther to climb. Washington area figures for 2013 are from WANADAs Area Report, based on R.L. Polk new-vehicle registration data. U.S. sales figures are from NADA and Wards Automotive.
Washington area sales for DC and 11, mostly county jurisdictions, in the Maryland suburbs and Northern Virginia, totaled 67,116 for the fourth quarter and 298,563 for the year. As always, numbers were substantially higher in December (24,851) than October (21,497) and November (20,988). The trend of much higher sales of imports (non-Detroit 3 vehicles) in the Washington area continued to hold true, as 70.5 percent of vehicles sold in 2013 were imports. Thats about even with 2012s share of import vehicles at 70.7 percent. Imports made up 78 percent of the regional passenger car market in 2013 and 61 percent of passenger trucks. In U.S. sales, imports accounted for just 55 percent of the market.
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