10 Things Scott Burgess Knows About June's Auto Sales

One of the coolest things that the automakers do is publish their sales figures on a monthly basis. This shows SO much clarity into what can be an overwhelming and "clear as mud" type of environment.

Almost instantly you see how a vehicle is performing relative to its peers and can analyze how vehicle "X" is really doing. Take, for example, the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf. I think it's safe to say most people would have expected the Volt to win this electric car race because it doesn't have range anxiety standard, but it is underselling the Leaf!

This leaves us with The Detroit News' Scott Burgess. After taking a look at the June sales figures, he came up with 10 elements that he can take from the sales numbers.

I highly suggest clicking "Read Article" to see the other nine, just sayin'.


We're halfway there. June sales numbers have rolled in; they're up 7.1 percent compared with the same month last year, but what does all of it mean? We're starting to see some of the residual effects of the parts supply problems in Japan as some carmakers are having trouble getting all of the pieces needed from suppliers to build their cars — you need all of them.

And as carmakers close the book on the second quarter, some expectations were met, and others were not.

Here are the 10 things I think I know after going through the June sales figures, provided by AutoData Corp.

1. We're driving through a tough economy.

You don't need me to tell you that the U.S. economy is still feeble at best. All the talk in the media of teetering on the financial abyss hasn't scared many people away from buying new cars and trucks...