Cheap credit, consumer confidence and new offerings caused retail car buyers to flock to dealer showrooms in August, boosting auto sales to their strongest month in more than six years.
Automakers beat expectations and sold 1.5 million cars and light trucks last month, a 17 percent increase from the same period a year ago, according to Autodata Corp. That translates into a seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate of 16.09 million cars and trucks, the first month the sales rate was above 16 million since October 2007.
“The strength that we saw so far this year manifested itself at its peak in August,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence at TrueCar. “And the fourth quarter might be the best quarter of all. That’s typically the time where seasonality works in favor of full-size trucks and SUVs.”