TrueCar.com Forecasts New and Used Auto Sales; Incentives Spending for February

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueCar.com, the authority on new car pricing, today released its February 2011 sales and incentives forecast.  The forecast shows the following:

• For February 2011, new light vehicle sales in the U.S. (including fleet) is expected to be 924,516 units, up 19 percent from February 2010 and up 13 percent from January 2011 (on an unadjusted basis)
• The February 2011 forecast translates into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (SAAR) of 12.5 million new car sales, down slightly from 12.61 million in January 2011 and up significantly from 10.41 million in February 2010
• Retail sales are up 12 percent compared to January 2011 and up 27 percent from February 2010
• Fleet and rental sales are expected to make up 20 percent of total industry sales in February 2011
• The industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,708 in February 2011, which represents an increase of five percent from January 2011 and down less than one percent from February 2010
• Used car sales* is estimated to be 1,710,750, down 15 percent from January 2011 and up six percent from February 2010.  The ratio of new to used is estimated to be 3:1 for February 2011

"We are finally seeing some consistency in new car sales with SAAR above the 12 million range over the past five months," said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insight for TrueCar.com. "With solid demand in the marketplace, SAAR will continue to stay at or above its current rate for the rest of the year."

Forecasts for the top seven manufacturers for February 2011:

"Unlike GM of the past decade, the new GM's increased incentive spending has been well calculated," said TrueCar.com's Toprak. "If GM is able to increase their sales volume by over 30 percent while increasing incentive spend by 10 percent, they should do that every month."

Toprak continues, "Toyota's increase was helped by the automaker being at the epicenter of their recall crises last year and before their incentives push.  Toyota will have a hard time increasing market share until later this year, when new models are expected to hit the showroom floor."

TrueCar.com also projects sales down to the brand level, which can be viewed in its entirety at the Truth Blog on TrueCar.com.  Brand level incentive spending forecasts are available upon request.

TrueCar.com bases its forecast on actual transaction data.  The transaction data based forecast is refined by other current and historical factors that impact vehicle sales, including:  sales, inventory, incentives, fuel prices, and macro economic data (major stock market indexes, consumer confidence, new home starts, and CPI).  TrueCar.com does not adjust for selling days in year-over-year percentage change calculations.

*Used car sales figures include sales from franchise dealerships, independent dealerships and private party sales

About TrueCar

TrueCar is the authority in new car prices. We show car buyers and car dealers how much people actually paid for a particular car in a specific local area. TrueCar pricing can help both new car buyers and new car dealers determine what is considered a good or great price on a new car. Consumers no longer need to walk into a dealership partially informed and fully suspicious – using TrueCar they walk in knowing the price of a fair deal. Dealers benefit by TrueCar's real-time, unbiased information about marketplace pricing, helping them price cars for increased sales, and ultimately gaining market share over other dealers. Our innovative new car pricing service is offered free of charge on our website at www.truecar.com, on our mobile site at mobile.truecar.com, and via syndication of our tools and pricing data to leading automotive research sites throughout the web.

About TrueCar Data

TrueCar obtains data directly from numerous sources including automotive dealers, technology companies, data aggregators, and analytics companies within the automotive space.   We also acquire vehicle configuration data, customer and dealer incentives data, financing and loan data, vehicle registration and insurance data, and much, much more.  TrueCar is insatiable about data with our goal to find 100% of all purchase transactions, even if that means finding the same transaction multiple times from multiple sources within the car-buying ecosystem.  Our data is among the most timely and comprehensive in the industry, as we are able to process most car sales within a week of the actual sales date, and have a substantial fraction on the site within 48 hours of the actual sale.  TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein is for noncommercial use on "as-is, as available" basis and may be used for informational purposes only.  TrueCar makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information contained in this press release and the results of the use of such information, including but not limited to implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.  The information contained in this press release may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.  Neither TrueCar nor any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or respective partners, officers, or directors, employees or agents shall be held liable for any damages, whether direct, incidental, indirect, special or consequential, including without limitation lost revenues or lost profits, arising from or in connection with your use or reliance on the information presented in this press release.

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Jesse Toprak

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SOURCE TrueCar.com