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Third-quarter U.S. vehicle sales fell 1.9% year over year, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week, as high prices on new vehicles and borrowing costs have kept shoppers on the sidelines.
That trend has yet to be seen, however, at some local dealerships.
Eric Lane, a partner at Gerry Lane Enterprises, says his dealerships have seen a double-digit increase in sales.
“We’re up 200 units for the year retail at Chevrolet, we’re probably up another 200 units at GMC and about 40 Cadillacs,” Lane says. “We’re up probably 15 to 20 percent.”
Lane says inventory on the lots has increased, which has helped sales.
“Now lots are full, and people are going in and looking at choices instead of having to order a car,” he adds.
Nick Pentas, general manager and co-owner of Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge, says his dealership’s third-quarter sales rose 10% compared to 2023.
He says two factors drove sales growth. The first was that the dealership got more of its core product—the GLC midsize SUV. The second was that electric vehicle production slowed.
Pentas says the Fed’s decision to lower interest rates last month affected local car sales even before the official announcement.
“Before the Fed made the decision, some of the banks that we use were already starting to lower rates, I think, in anticipation of that,” he says. “It’s not like whenever they make a rate cut, the next day, everybody’s rates are exactly half a point lower, but they do start to come down a little bit.”
He adds that the dealership’s inventory is back to prepandemic levels. But, its sales are not. A rise in SUV inventory has cut the dealership’s average manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or MSRP, from $100,000 at the start of the year to $70,000.
“I have more affordable cars, so that will definitely help increase volume,” Pentas says. “The volume hasn’t caught up to the inventory because the inventory is just now getting built up to its highest point now.”
