New car sales are soaring for Vancouver-area car dealers, up between 28 and 46 percent compared to March 2010 figures.
“It’s a trend,” said Kent VanArnam, marketing director for Dick Hannah Dealerships. “After a few years of soft car sales here in Clark County, we’ve had very strong demand, starting in January.”
VanArnam wouldn’t share his dealership’s sales increase percentage over 2010, only saying that it’s a double-digit increase, but Vancouver Ford reports an uptick of 46 percent over 2010. Nationally, small car sales are up 23.6 percent with sports utility vehicles nudging up 22.8 percent, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).
With gasoline prices hovering in the $4-a-gallon range, it would seem logical that buyers would be snapping up economy cars. And while that has happened (economy car sales were up 29 percent last month, according to the NADA), experts believe there’s more at work than just fuel concerns.
“There’s pent-up demand,” VanArnam said.
Jon Creedon, president of Vancouver Auto Group, explained that many Clark County residents have held off buying a new car, nursing along an old one instead.
“A lot of cars have been pushed to their limit in terms of age and miles,” said Creedon.
According to Paul Taylor, chief economist for NADA, the average age of vehicles is 10.2 years old. That fact, combined with low new-car interest rates (some as low as .9 percent), increased fuel efficiency and more residents getting back to work (where the need for a second car in the family comes into play), is driving purchases up.
Moreover, Taylor said there are roughly five million less used cars available in the United States today.
“That [less used cars on the market] has caused used car prices to increase,” Taylor said. “It’s raised the trade-in equity that a customer has in their old car. [Because there are less used cars] customers are finding used cars more expensive than they were a couple of years ago.”
All of which makes a new car purchase more attractive to buyers, according to Taylor.
In Clark County, dealers are optimistic that the brisk car sales trend will increase through the rest of the year.
“Every month of 2011 will improve over the same month of 2010,” Creedon said, adding that his dealership is also hiring, adding sales and technician jobs.
“We’re not back to our pre-recession employment levels,” Creedon explained, “That will take some time.”
