July U.S. auto sales increased 2.4 percent, full-year sales to drop states forecasters

U.S. July automobile sales likely increased 2.4 percent from a year previously, however full-year sales will not match 2015’s record, forecasters J.D. Power and LMC Automotive stated on Friday.

LMC is now expecting that 17.4 million new cars will be offered in the whole 2016, down 0.1 percent from 2015. It would be the very first annual decline in U.S car sales since the year of 2009.

On Thursday, Ford Motor Co (F.N) became the very first significant automaker to declare that the long U.S. automobile market recovery was at an end.

Brian Johnson, automobile market analyst at Barclays, previously this month altered his outlook for the United States auto market from “plateau” to “eroding plateau”.

Johnson informed Reuters that Ford’s assessment of a deteriorating market was necessary for market observers.

Backing out of medium and heavy trucks to consist of just cars in the LMC projection, the midpoint of Ford’s new outlook would have to do with 17.3 million cars, weaker than LMC’s forecast.

While their yearly projection is getting more bearish, J.D. Power and LMC state July will be incredibly strong, with a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of sales of 18.1 million vehicles.

Johnson stated July was an example of a strong month amid a weakening trend.

LMC was the most bullish amongst a group of analysts that included Barclays, RBC Capital, Edmunds.com, Kelley Blue Book, WardsAuto and TrueCar, which anticipate July U.S. sales on an annualized basis in a variety from 17.5 million to 17.8 million automobiles.