Watching the way residents of this province buy new vehicles is a little like watching a roller-coaster. It goes up and then it goes down.
The pace of purchases at new vehicle dealerships can be an informative exercise. It tells us how consumers are feeling – are they confident enough to buy new or are they going used. Or…are auto makers doing a better job and the gap between vehicle replacements is getting wider so we don’t need to buy as often?
But this is one of the few big purchases the average person makes so it also a barometer of consumer confidence or sentiment.
We have just received September’s numbers for new vehicle purchases and they are down. Compared to August, sales were down about 260 units. And while that provides a perspective, perhaps the most effective one is to compare this September to the last one and again, they were down…about 250.
One other interesting tidbit in the monthly report is that we’re spending more on each new unit as the dollar volume for the month was almost equal to last year.
