Latest Maryland car sales beat August clunker surge
Maryland September car-sales figures are out from the MVA. Weirdly, Marylanders bought more new cars last month, after the cash-for-clunkers program expired, than they did in August, when clunkers was going full blast. At least that's what the figures indicate.
Marylanders registered 25,251 cars and trucks during August -- the monthly high for 2009 and the best result since September 2008, just as the bottom was falling out of the economy. But September 2009 new-car sales were slightly better -- 26,922. Assuming that the clunkers program stole demand from future months, I would have expected a September sales crash.
Is this a small sign of economic recovery, at least in Maryland? People bought cars in decent numbers even without free taxpayer money. There doesn't seem to be a seasonal factor; usually in recent years September sales have been lower than those in August. Maybe those who didn't qualify for the clunkers incentive read all the news stories and decided to buy a car anyway. Dealers seemed to be offering some pretty good incentives independent of the federal stimulus.
Like I said, a small sign of recovery. The Dow Jones stock index and Maryland monthly car sales are both back to where they were in September 2008. But they're still far down from their highs. In September 2003 Marylanders bought 40,000 new cars.
UPDATE: Peter Kitzmiller, president of the Maryland Automobile Dealers Association, says there may be less to the September report than meets the eye. Although the clunkers program ended Aug. 25, there was probably a spillover of paperwork into September for the Motor Vehicle Administration. That would have pushed clunker results into the September sales report that just came out.
Dealers are tellling him that "new-car sales have slowed dramatically since the clunker program has ended," Kitzmiller said.
Comments
Wouldn't that actually make sense? Most people wait the full 30 days to register a new car, therefore people registering in September would have bought their car in August.
Posted by: Chris in KS | October 15, 2009 9:48 AM
Chris.. perhaps in KS it is done that way but in MD the purchase transaction requires registration with all the related paperwork
(title, insurance verification, tag transfer) completed at time of purchase before the car leaves the lot.
Posted by: MrRational | October 15, 2009 11:43 AM
So you don't get 30 day tags in Maryland if you buy a new car, and then when they send you the title a few weeks later you go to the DMV and they give you the new registration for the vehicle?
Yes, when you buy a car in Kansas you still have to have the title to your car you're selling, insurance verification and all that.
Posted by: Chris in KS | October 15, 2009 12:21 PM
Chris, I'm no expert but I'd say that most cars are bought by people who already have cars and tags. A guess would be that 10%? are sold to car virgins with no tag to transfer. And yes, the official hard paper title and registration card will come in the mail later.
But the transaction is immediately filed in electronic form and recorded at the MVA before the car leaves the lot. I'd venture that description applies at all new car dealers and most used ones as well (absent a few luddites).
So... I don't think there is any basis to believe the MVA numbers are suffering from a time lag as your first post implied.
Posted by: MrRational | October 15, 2009 12:37 PM