Motor vehicles, model year 1992 - sales of new cars and trucks

Survey of Current Business, Oct, 1992 by Larry R. Moran

Quarterly patterns in model year 1992. - Most of the strength in truck sales was in the second quarter of 1992. Truck sales were unchanged in the fourth quarter of 1991 and in the first quarter of 1992; they jumped sharply in the second quarter and decreased slightly in the third (chart 6).

In the fourth quarter of 1991, truck sales were unchanged at 4.3 million. An increase in sales of domestic light trucks offset small decreases in sales of imported light trucks and of "other" trucks.

(1.) This article uses data on unit sales, inventories, and production mainly from Ward's Automotive Reports and the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association and data on prices mainly from the Automobile Invoice Service and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. These data underlie the estimates of auto and truck output in the national income and product accounts.

For this article, the model year is defined as beginning on October 1 and ending on the following September 30. Thus, model year 1992 covers the fourth calendar quarter of 1991 and the first, second, and third calendar quarters of 1992. (2) Sales of domestic cars and trucks consist of sales of vehicles manufactured in North America and sold in the United States. Domestic-nameplate vehicles are those manufactured in North America at factories owned by U.S. companies. Transplant vehicles are those manufactured in North America at foreign-owned factories, which are known as transplants. Sales of imported cars and trucks consist of sales of vehicles manufactured outside North America and sold in the United States. (3.) After slowing in 1989 and the first half of 1990, the U.S. economy entered a recession in the third quarter of 1990. In the second quarter of 1991, many of the major measures of economic activity, such as real gross domestic product (GDP), turned up; since then, GDP has increased modestly, and in the third quarter of 1992, it surpassed its second-quarter 1990 peak. (4) BEA derives the average expenditure per new car by weighting each model's suggested retail price (adjusted for options, discounts or premiums, and sales taxes) by its share of sales. Movements in the average expenditure differ from movements in the new-car component of the CPI, which is a fixed-weighted price index, primarily because the CPI, unlike the average expenditure, is adjusted to remove the influence of quality change on prices and because the average expenditure, unlike the CPI, reflects changes in the mix of models and options sold and includes cars sold to businesses and government. (5.) Fleet sales are sales to businesses that purchase 10 or more vehicles for rental, leasing, or commercial use. (6.) Light trucks are those with up to 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight. These trucks include light conventional pickups, compact pickups, sportutility vehicles, and passenger vans. (7.) "Other" trucks are those with over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight. These trucks range from medium-duty general delivery trucks to heavy-duty diesel tractor-trailers.