The end of cars' record sales streak

Following seven straight years of growth, U.S. sales of new vehicles slid last year

A car dealership.
(Image credit: iStock)

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"The auto industry's long-running sales party has come to an end," said Neal Boudette at The New York Times. Following seven straight years of growth, U.S. sales of new vehicles slid last year, to 17.2 million cars and trucks, a decline of 1.8 percent from 2016. With estimates already suggesting that 2018 will bring "an even larger drop," analysts say carmakers have reason to be concerned about challenges on the horizon. Interest rates are on the rise, tariffs and trade changes loom from NAFTA renegotiations, and fuel prices, "though still low by the standards of recent years," are up 14 cents, to $2.49 a gallon, from this time last year. The market is also saturated: The longest period of sales growth "since the infancy of the automobile nearly a century ago" was driven largely by the end of the recession. As the economy improved, consumers who had put off new purchases "rushed out to replace the clunkers they'd been driving." But now there are 1.26 vehicles on the road for every licensed U.S. driver, the most ever. Then there is the matter of the industry's expensive shift to autonomous and electric vehicles, even though it remains unclear "how many they will be able to sell, and when."

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