Inventory Dips, but That's Where the Good News Ends

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

The cooling off of the U.S. auto market wasn’t immediately and universally addressed via a production slowdown, but as year-over-year sales losses piled up, automakers began to get in line. Downtime rose, shifts were cut, and the country’s bloated new car inventory began to thin.

August brought the trimmest number of unsold vehicles seen in the past year, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be flying off lots.

Quite the opposite, in fact. According to figures from the Automotive News Data Center, while new vehicle inventory is indeed at a yearly low (just 3,798,400 vehicles), the amount of time it takes to sell an average vehicle is on the rise.

A decrease in sales means the country’s unsold vehicle inventory now turns over, on average, every 71 days. This draws from the 73 days’ supply of light truck models (2,859,600 units) and a 64-day supply of passenger cars (938,800 units). Not since the U.S. was pulling out of the recession — November 2011, to be exact — did the country’s inventory amount to less than a million passenger cars. Expect that figure to sink further as automakers continue pushing small cars into the grave.

The most recent example of companies tailoring production to match reduced demand came at the beginning of August, when Honda cut a shift at its Marysville, Ohio assembly plant, stemming the flow of Honda Accords and Civics.

While the industry posted an estimated sales gain of 1.2 percent in July, the first increase this year, the seasonally adjusted, annualized pace of sales fell to 16.82 million. Last year’s 17.27 million U.S. auto sales represented a high water mark for the industry, one which likely won’t be repeated for some time.

[Image: Subaru]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Peter Gazis Peter Gazis on Aug 13, 2019

    highdesertcat/Jeff S. Vio con dios! / Go with God! No shortage of people that want to come to the U.S. by leaving you just open up spots for 2 more.

    • Highdesertcat Highdesertcat on Aug 14, 2019

      Peter I hate to disappoint you, but I maintain residences in El Paso, TX, Dog Canyon, NM, San Diego, CA, Scottsdale, AZ, Highland Ranch (South Denver), CO, and of course now the Villa in Ensenada, BC, Mexico. Aside from our own residences we also belong to Diamond Resorts and Eldorado Resorts where we spend a lot of time each year at different Resorts. And then there is my sister in Vancouver, BC and my sister in Tel Aviv, Israel, each who has asked us to come visit them more often. We did a couple of years back, and they still want to see us again. No, we have plenty of places to spend our time and our money away from America's Open Border policy that encourages drug trafficking, human smuggling and MS-13 gang-related crime the sanctuary states so richly deserve. I continue to be amazed at how many Americans (who can) choose to live outside of the US. I meet them everywhere, even in the most unlikely places like Sao Paolo, Brazil, Germany, Portugal, The Netherlands, and even Merry Olde England. Remember, under the next 'crat president, open borders will be the norm.

  • Jeff S Jeff S on Aug 13, 2019

    @Peter Gazis--I didn't say I was definitely leaving. As for spots opening up I doubt you have worry about that with all the people from Central America seeking asylum.

  • Peter Gazis Peter Gazis on Aug 13, 2019

    Cars usually sell better in the spring and summer. Trucks usually sell better in the Fall.

  • Redgolf Redgolf on Aug 14, 2019

    highdesertcat - that's the way I'm looking at it also, 70 years old, wrenching days no longer wanted/needed! So long as I can get a reasonable monthly lease payment on a decent ride, however I'm finding that the low monthly lease offers advertised, the dealers never have them in stock, they always have the ones that sticker for a few thousand more thus pushing up the monthly payment - Grrrrrrr!

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