Cars.com Analyst Forecasts Highest April SAAR Since 2006

Projected Increase of 10% Over April 2013, Decrease of 7.8% Since March

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Apr 25, 2014, 11:00 ET

CHICAGO, April 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com forecasts total April sales will hit 1,414,120, up 10 percent year-over-year and down 7.8 percent from March. An adjusted SAAR of 16.29 million new-car sales is expected for April, which is an increase of 7.2 percent from this time last year, and decrease of 0.7 percent month-over-month. This would mark the highest April SAAR since 2006.

"The turbo switch finally flipped in April with new-vehicle sales expected to post a healthy 10 percent increase over 2013 after a virtually flat first quarter," said Jesse Toprak, chief analyst of automotive digital marketing company Cars.com. "Car shoppers thawed out after one of the worst winters in history, and showroom traffic was strong once again. Demand for new cars was fueled by low interest rates, very attractive lease specials, and perhaps the best selection of models consumers have ever seen – across all brands."

Retail sales are projected to make up 81.5 percent of total automotive sales this month, up 3.2 percent from April 2013. Honda is expected to finish with the highest month of sales since December 2013, up 3.1 percent from March. Despite recall woes, GM's U.S. market share is projected to increase slightly from March to April.

Automotive sales forecasts for April 2014 for the 'Big Eight' manufacturers:

Unit Sales
Manufacturer	April 2014 Sales Forecast	YoY	MoM
Chrysler Group	178,642	13.7%	-8.4%
Ford	215,407	2.5%	-10.5%
GM	243,674	2.5%	-4.8%
Honda	137,405	4.9%	3.1%
Hyundai/Kia	112,021	1.0%	-8.0%
Nissan	101,426	15.5%	-32.0%
Toyota	196,886	11.8%	-8.6%
Volkswagen	50,428	-1.3%	-8.5%
Industry Total	1,414,120	10.0%	-7.8%

Market Share
Manufacturer	April 2014 Sales Forecast	Mar-14	Apr-13
Chrysler Group	12.6%	12.7%	12.2%
Ford	15.2%	15.7%	16.3%
GM	17.2%	16.7%	18.5%
Honda	9.7%	8.7%	10.2%
Hyundai/Kia	7.9%	7.9%	8.6%
Nissan	7.2%	9.7%	6.8%
Toyota	13.9%	14.0%	13.7%
Volkswagen	3.6%	3.6%	4.0%

ABOUT CARS.COM
Cars.com is an award-winning online destination for car shoppers that offers information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. Cars.com offers thousands of new and used vehicle listings, consumer reviews, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and many other tools to take the drama out of car shopping. Cars.com puts millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures LLC.

SOURCE Cars.com