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Upbeat consumers and pent-up demand caused by Hurricane Sandy helped fuel the best November for carmakers in four years.
Chrysler’s Ram pickups saw sales jump 23 percent in the month and Ford’s F-series soared nearly 18 percent. While Ram and F-series sales led the pack, the advances were generally across the board.
“November is just the beginning,” said automotive analyst Kristen Andersson of TrueCar.com, which tracks sales.
“We’re going to see even bigger gains in the next two or three months,” she said. “It’s just a matter of waiting for insurance checks for replacement vehicles.”
Andersson was referring to a side effect of Sandy — because many cars were destroyed by floodwaters, consumers will have to replace them.
October sales had been hampered as many people stopped shopping for cars and focused on buying pumps, food and emergency supplies in the days leading up to Sandy’s Oct. 29 landfall in the Northeast.
Detroit’s solid month translated to a healthy 15.5 million-vehicle annual sell rate.
Goosing sales among younger buyers are sweeping redesigns in interiors that transform dashboards into monitors for mobile phones, instruments and apps.
Aiding the showroom boosts are historically cheap car loans, which now hover near zero percent, easier credit for younger buyers and generous incentive packages that are up 19.3 percent from the prior month, said TrueCar.com senior analyst Jesse Toprak.
That equals about $2,800 in rebates and extras, Toprak said.