WANADA Area Report: new vehicle sales up 12% in 12
Washington area new vehicle sales rose 9.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 and a strong 12.3 percent for the full year, according to the WANADA area report based on R.L. Polk data. The full-year increase was just below the national figure of 13 percent, but U.S. sales had farther to climb after suffering a bigger drop during the recession than regional sales.
Sales for the 13 localities that make up the Washington metropolitan area were 68,724 in the fourth quarter and 290,884 for the entire year. December saw the best sales results in the three-month period 25,000 for the month versus nearly 22,000 in November and just over 21,000 in October.
While December sales were slightly higher than the average monthly sales of 24,240 in 2012, five months in the year eclipsed December with more sales. The high point was May with 28,536 new vehicles sold and the low point was January at 20,637.
Import (non-Detroit 3) cars and trucks were 71% of all vehicles sold here compared with 55% nationwide.
Regional and national sales of cars versus trucks are more comparable, being slightly more than one out of two here as well as across the country.
For the complete WANADA Area Report, click here to log into the Members section. Go to General Information, then Market and Sales Data.
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