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August Auto Sales Up About 1% Thanks to Clunkers Program

Posted Sep 02, 2009 01:30pm EDT by Tech Ticker in Investing, Products and Trends, Recession, Autos
Related: dia, spy, f, dai, tm, an

Indeed the taxpayer-funded Cash for Clunkers program boosted auto sales in August. Ford was a winner with a 17.2 percent sales gain compared with August a year ago. But both GM and Chrysler posted lower sales versus August 2008.

But as our guest Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of Edmunds.com, points out, was the clunkers program ultimately needed?

"What happens when you have a big incentive like Cash for Clunkers is it brings people into the market but many of these people were going to buy a car at some point in the near future anyway," Anwyl says.

Longer term, the "car business has reached some level of stability and its even modestly improving even without the Cash for Clunkers program," Anwyl says. "Eleven to 12 million is not an unreasonable forecast” for car sales next year, he added.

But if Hyundai's sales are any indicator, the consumer remains focused on affordability. Among the foreign auto manufacturers, Hyundai's August sales surged 47 percent  versus a year ago. 

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