Top manufacturers remain confident for rest of 2019
Analysts have said some consumers may have pulled ahead vehicle purchases last year to try to get ahead of any tariffs resulting from US trade conflicts.Major automakers reported a drop in first-quarter US auto sales on Tuesday, but expressed confidence in the market despite downcast 2019 predictions from some industry watchers.
General Motors, the biggest US automaker, sold 665,840 vehicles in the first three months of the year, down seven percent from the 2018 period. GM reported declines in the majority of models, including some leading sport utility and pickup truck lines. It attributed this, in part, to"very limited" supply of new pickup trucks that had been launched during the quarter, but that had sold well where they were available.
Analysts have said that first-quarter sales were dented by the effects of the government shutdown and a pullback in the US stock market at the end of 2018, but they have also warned of a slowing market. "The year has started relatively soft for new-vehicle sales," Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at Cox Automotive, said in a recent forecast."It's looking like the new-vehicle market is suffering in part from the overdue resumption of the normal, post-peak slowdown that was temporarily disrupted last year by tax reform."
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