Costa Mesa, California — July automotive retail sales in the US are likely to be 1.178m units. That is 2.0% lower than July 2018 according to consultants JD Power and LMC Automotive.
And, although the group upped its estimate for the global market by 40,000 units, it is now predicting total light-vehicle sales of 17m units. This is, a decline of 1.9% from 2018.
Jeff Schuster is president, americas operations and global vehicle forecasts at LMC Automotive:
He is optimistic: “There are signals that auto sales in the second half of 2019 are poised to outperform expectations,' he said.
'Trade risk remains a threat, transaction prices continue to rise and economic growth is moderating,' he warned. Despite this 'sales in the second half of the year could outperform expectations,' he added.
Schuster is basing his outlook on past performance in the second half of the past five years.
