New car sales pick up speed
| Tuesday, May 25 2010 04:31 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, May 25 2010 04:31 PM
Local new car dealers are on a roll, even if they do have a lot of ground to make up before they can regain the momentum they had a few years ago.
Local new vehicle sales totaled 1,481 in April, a 6 percent increase as compared with the same month a year before, according to data from Cross-Sell Reports.
Last month's total still pales when compared with that of just three years before. Local new vehicle sales came to 2,251 in April 2007 -- 52 percent greater than last month's tally, Cross-Sell reported.
"Still our volume total is way down," said Chuck Haddad, president of Haddad Dodge and other Bakersfield dealerships. But he added: "The economy's improving. People are buying."
April's results easily beat totals from the month before, which was a good month as well. March's 1,020 local new vehicle sales topped March 2009's count by 16 percent, and exceeded February's result by 42 percent, Cross-Sell reported.
Devinder Singh, dealer and principal at Taft Chevrolet Buick Pontiac in Taft, attributed the recent improvement to customers who simply couldn't wait any longer to buy a new car.
"People only can hold it for so long to buy the cars," he said.
Singh also referred to a "catch-22," in that sales are up but dealers' inventories are down. Manufacturers can't seem to keep up with growing demand, he said.
His dealership has reacted by putting more used cars on the lot. He said these vehicles are selling well, helping keep business going until deliveries of new cars and trucks arrive.
Brian McClure said he is seeing the same trend at his recently opened used car lot on 24th Street. He said business has increased consistently since October, partly because his rent-to-own business works with customers who have bad credit.
"We've excelled month after month," he said.
"As long as they pay, we're good."
