• May 31, 2011

New incentive programs has not driven more consumers into auto showrooms. J.D. Power says new-vehicle retail sales are weak through the third week of the month. The firm, which gets transaction data in real time from 8,900 retail franchisees throughout the United States, says retail selling rate in May will likely come in below 9.5 million units for the first time since August 2010.

"As lower incentive levels, high gas prices and inventory shortages plague the month-to-date sales rate, light-vehicle sales in May have been unable to shake the slowdown from the stronger pace of the first four months of 2011," said Jeff Schuster, executive director of global forecasting, in a statement. "May's overall performance will hinge on how strong Memorial Day weekend sales were, but heading into this past weekend, the selling pace was indicating a SAAR closer to 11.5 million units."