RyanK

August auto sales slacked off July's speed, according to Automotive News. Hurricane Irene and dropping consumer confidence are primarily at fault. Source for this article: August auto sales fall below expectations, post-Irene



Not an uptick in econo-my yet



Vehicle makers ended up cutting back sales of cars and trucks by 900,000 from 2011 and 2012 estimates, as shown in a Bloomberg survey of August vehicle sales. The Congressional Spending budget Office explains that United States economic climate forecasts showing that the economy will grow less than 3 percent through 2013 and unemployment rates will stay above 8 percent caused the cutbacks to happen.



Nobody can purchase after a hurricane hits



The 14 analysts in the Bloomberg survey say that the seasonal adjusted annual rate could be as high as 12.1 million when it comes to August auto sales. Professionals had hoped that number would be higher, although it is better than the figure for Could and June.



Experts like Wells Fargo's Rich Kwas envisioned a lack of sales for late August, partially due to Hurricane Irene. Auto deliveries were disrupted in key states like North Carolina, resulting in inventory cutbacks of nearly 30 percent, accord-ing to National Automobile Dealers Association chief economist Paul Tay-lor.



Alan Baum of Baum and Associates forecast 100,000 lost sales for the month. Kwas agreed with Baum on one thing. In September, there should be a return.


Not a fast recov-ery



An increase in U.S. auto sales can be anticipated. Still, Jeff Schuster of J.D. Power & Associates thinks it will be very slow. About 300,000 cars and light trucks were cut by J.D. Power from its 2011 estimates while it 2012 estimates showed a 600,000 cut.



Very low consumer confidence



August consumer confidence declined to 44.5, which is the weakest level on record since April 2009. In the second quarter, there was only a 1 percent increase in gross domestic product. That is not what the United States Commerce Department was expecting.



J.D. Power on August 2011 car sales


August 2011 Automotive Sales Forecast Update - YouTube



Information from



Automotive News



Bloomberg


Congressional Budget Office