In an intriguing CNN Money piece today, the publishing giant has figured out that things are not as rosy as they seem.
Duh, we could have told you that this past week, thanks to a great story from The Truth About Cars.
As I said this past weekend:
"If you are not up to speed, in the US, auto sales for the year were approximately 16-17 million vehicles annually.
Now, it is currently hovering around 11-12 million vehicles for 2010.
Time will tell but this is certainly not a "recovery" by any means. This is merely a bounce from the trough."
According to CNN, U.S. auto sales are predominantly up due to the 38 percent jump in FLEET sales. Meanwhile, retail sales to actual consumers is up just 12 percent. Yikes.
Take a look below at another interesting perspective from the CNN piece:
"[SVP @ Nationwide Financial, Paul] Ballew said the drop in demand for new vehicles in recent years was unlike anything since the 1982 recession. It took five or six years for demand to fully come back after that He expects it will take a similar amount of time for demand to return to more "normal" levels, which he estimates at about 16 million vehicles annually..."
Weigh in the comments, below...
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The auto industry appears to be turning the corner. But the American consumer has yet to come along for the ride.
Overall U.S. auto sales have rebounded nicely, up 17% through the first five months of the year. Auto companies will announce their sales for June on Thursday and analysts expect another increase from a year ago.
But much of the improvement has been due to a 38% jump in fleet sales to businesses, such as rental car companies. Retail sales are up a far more modest 12%.
"Consumer confidence is far from repaired," said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at TrueCar.com. "They can't pull the trigger on big ticket purchases. We don't see that changing any time soon...
[Source: CNN Money]
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