Back in August industry experts agreed that the auto industry was set to see a sales advance for the first time in 2017. But then Harvey came along and changed the game. The end of August sales reporting reflected a 1.8 percent decline for light-vehicle sales and a dip in SAAFR to its lowest level since February of 2014. The report marks the eighth consecutive month of decline in spite of predictions that sales would see an overall boost.
It wasn't bad news for everyone though. General Motors and Toyota reported strong sales in the US while competitors struggled. GM saw a 7.5 percent increase thanks in large part to fleet and retail orders. Toyota saw its third straight month of advances, going up 6.8 percent.
When asked about the impact of Harvey as well as the future of sales, GM's chief economist Mustafa Mohatarem said -
Hurricane Harvey did have an adverse effect on deliveries during the last week of August for every automaker but the key U.S. economic fundamentals remain supportive of strong vehicle sales [...] With the U.S. economy strengthening, we anticipate retail sales will be strong for the foreseeable future.
August reports reflected a dip of 1.4 percent for certified pre-owned cars with 230,013 sales for the month. This was down from 233,236 in August of the previous year. But the August numbers are still a rise compared to July.
While August may be down compared to the monthly car sales a year ago, overall, CPO sales are on track to beat 2016's overall sales. Over the past eight months, there have been just under 1.8 million CPO sales, beating last year's pace by about 0.3 percent.