NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:
Sara Panza
Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association
440.746.1500 

Trucks and SUVs Do the Heavy Lifting
For New Vehicle Market in May

Cleveland, OH (June 10, 2015) –  Trucks and SUVs did the heavy lifting in terms of new vehicles sales in Northern Ohio in May, ringing up an increase of 11.14 percent over May of 2014, according to figures released today by the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association (GCADA). Franchised new vehicle dealers sold a total of 20,591 new vehicles in the month compared with 21,198 vehicles in May of 2014, an overall decrease of 2.86 percent. For the year to date, sales are up .15 percent, essentially flat with last year. Sales of trucks and SUVs, however, are up 11.76 percent over last year through the end of May.

“It’s definitely the continuation of a trend that we have seen over the last few months,” said Louis A. Vitantonio, president of the GCADA. “Lower fuel prices continue to drive sales of trucks and SUVs. At the same time, several brands introduced new trucks and SUVs that have come into showrooms in the last few months, helping sales as well.

May of 2015 is also coming up against some historically strong numbers. In May of last year new vehicle sales rose 3.52 percent, besting the double-digit growth in May of 2013 when the industry sold 20,478 new vehicles, which is actually below this year’s pace.

“While we have seen some fluctuations in the numbers from month to month, the factors that contribute to overall sales growth are still in place,” Vitantonio said. “We are still predicting an increase of between one and three percent for the year.”

Franchised new vehicle dealers in Northern Ohio sold 6,624 trucks and SUVs in May compared with 5,960 trucks and SUVS in May of 2014. Several brands enjoyed a break out month in terms of truck and SUV sales. While many brands registered double-digit growth in the segment, Acura, Infiniti, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Porsche and Subaru all had truck and SUV sales increases of more than 50 percent when comparing May of 2015 with May of 2014.

In terms of total new vehicle sales, the top four brands in Northern Ohio in May of this year were Ford, Chevrolet, Honda and Toyota, in that order. The Blue Oval sold 3,444 new vehicles in May, compared to 2,947 for the Golden Bow Tie. Honda came in at 1,889 vehicles ahead of Toyota at 1,668 vehicles sold in the month.

16 Brands Up in May (‘15 v. ‘14)
The following brands posted sales increases in May of 2015 versus May of 2014: Acura, Audi, Chrysler, GMC, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mini, Porsche, Smart and Subaru.

16 Brands Up Year-To-Date (’15 v. ’14)
The following brands have posted sales increases year-to-date through May of 2015: Acura, Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, GMC, Honda, Jaguar, Jeep, Lexus, Lincoln, Mini, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru and Volvo.

New-car and truck sales in Northern Ohio
May ‘15 / May ‘14 & YTD

Retail sales figures are based on vehicle registration reports from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.  Vehicle sales data includes the counties of: Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Coshocton, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Holmes, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, Tuscarawas and Wayne.

# # #

If you no longer wish to receive email advertisements from GCADA, please call 440-746-1500, send a fax to 440-746-1504, or send an email to gcada@gcada.org and provide the following information so we can process your request: your name, the name of your company (if applicable), your email address(es), and that you do not wish to receive email advertisements from GCADA. We must process your request within 10 days.  GCADA is located at 10100 Brecksville Road, Brecksville, Ohio 44141.