3.5 million used-car sales likely for April

Used-car sales this month are likely to decline modestly from March, but the seasonally adjusted annualized rate should remain steady.

That’s according to an analysis released this week by Edmunds, which projects April used-car sales of approximately 3.5 million units.

That would be down from 3.7 million in March. The SAAR for both months, however, is at 39.2 million, Edmunds said.

The pre-owned market is bringing “growing competition” to the new-car market, according to an analysis released Thursday from Cox Automotive.  

Millions of off-lease vehicles are being pumped into the retail market for consumers, thanks to high leasing rates in recent years, the report notes.

Seperately, in its  2018 Used Car Market Report & Outlook released in March,  Cox Automotive forecasted 39.5 million used-car sales this year, up from 39.3 million a year ago.  New-car sales are likely to dip to 16.7 million for the year.

“Although buying conditions are strong for all vehicle markets, growth in used supply from off-lease vehicles, coupled with record prices for new products ad a modest pull-back in fleet activity, is steering new and used products in different directions,” Cox Automotive senior economist Charlie Chesbrough wrote in the used-car sales section of that report.

As for April, the company is projecting new-car sales to dip 3.6 percent year-over-year. But Cox Automotive called April’s pace “strong,” with a 17.3 million SAAR, beating the April 2017 pace of 17.0 million.