The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) is estimating that its U.S. sales estimate of 17.1 million new vehicles in 2017 will hold steady despite economic headwinds.
“Overall, we still expect sales and leases to reach 17.1 million new vehicles in 2017, with the expectation that rising consumer incentives will overcome any increases in interest rates later in the year,” NADA Chief Economist Steven Szakaly said. “While these headwinds will not have much of an impact on new-vehicle sales, they are a sign of a flat market as we look at the rest of 2017 and next year.”
Consumer demand for new vehicles has stayed strong at the reported seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to Szakaly and NADA Chairman Mark Scarpelli. Both are prepared for both positives and negatives in the emerging new-vehicle market.
“Across the fleet, there is strong demand for vehicles equipped with the latest safety features, such as automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning systems and collision avoidance technology,” Scarpelli said. “This is a big piece of the overall new-vehicle demand puzzle. And in my view, it’s tremendously positive. Not just because it’s helping sales, but because it’s leading to a safer fleet of vehicles on the road every year.”
Factors that could negatively impact new-vehicle sales include longer auto loan terms and higher interest rates that stretch out the buying cycle, Scarpelli said.