J.D. Power & Assoc., which keeps tabs on auto sales volume through its Power Information Network of retail activity, says January new-vehicle retail sales began to slow in the second half of the
month, with the selling rate now set to dip below below SAAR of 10 million units.
Jeff Schuster, Power's eye in the sky for sales traffic, says momentum hit a speed bump. "The strength
in retail sales from the beginning of the month has reversed during the past two weeks," he said in a statement. "There are a multitude of factors that could be driving the weakness: winter
storms, delayed payback from the strong December close, and a pullback in marketing and incentives, as incentive levels are 12% lower compared with December."
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