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DETROIT (AP) — Thanks partly to Black Friday promotions, most automakers are reporting booming sales last month.
Car buying site Edmunds.com predicts that sales of new cars and trucks will hit 1.33 million, eclipsing the previous November record set in 2001.
General Motors' sales rose 1.5 percent over last November, while Toyota and Fiat Chrysler's each saw 3 percent sales gains. Hyundai's sales jumped 12 percent, while Nissan's were up 4 percent. Ford's sales were flat.
Honda's sales fell 5 percent, hurt by lower CR-V sales. But the biggest sales declines were at Volkswagen. VW's U.S. sales plummeted almost 25 percent, hurt by the company's admission that its diesel vehicles cheated on emissions tests.
Edmunds analyst Jessica Caldwell says November was a notoriously slow sales month until about five years ago, when car dealers joined other retailers in promoting Black Friday. Now, like Amazon, Wal-Mart and others, dealers started promoting "Black Friday" deals as early as Halloween.
Jeep offered zero percent financing for up to 75 months. GM teased savings of up to 20 percent of for its Buick, Chevrolet and GMC brands. Hyundai offered an extra $500 on the Sonata sedan between Nov. 20 and Nov. 30.
APPHOTO NYBZ106: In this Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015, photo, salesperson Andrew Montalvo, left, talks to a customer checking out the interior of a 2015 Grand Cherokee Limited in Doral, Fla. Fiat Chrysler sales are up in what could be a record November. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) (5 Nov 2015)
<<APPHOTO NYBZ106 (11/05/15)££
APPHOTO NY116: FILE - In this Sept. 21, 2015 file photo, the Volkswagen Passat is displayed during a reveal event at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. Volkswagen's emissions-cheating scandal took a serious bite out of the company's U.S. sales last month. The German automaker reports that November 2015 U.S. sales fell almost 25 percent from a year ago. The company blamed the decline on stop-sale orders for diesel-powered vehicles that the government says cheated on pollution tests. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen) (21 Sep 2015)
<<APPHOTO NY116 (09/21/15)££
Thanks partly to Black Friday promotions, automakers enjoyed a sales boom last month, except for Volkswagen which was hurt by the revelation about cheating on emission tests of diesel vehicles.
Car buying site Edmunds.com predicted that sales of new cars and trucks will hit 1.33 million, eclipsing the previous November record set in 2001.
General Motors' sales rose 1.5 percent over last November, while Toyota and Fiat Chrysler's each saw 3 percent sales gains. Hyundai's sales jumped 12 percent, while Nissan's were up 4 percent. Ford's sales were flat.
Honda's sales fell 5 percent, hurt by lower CR-V sales. But the biggest sales declines were at Volkswagen. VW's U.S. sales plummeted almost 25 percent, hurt by the company's admission that its diesel vehicles cheated on emissions tests.
November was a notoriously slow sales month until about five years ago, when car dealers joined other retailers in promoting Black Friday, according to Edmunds analyst Jessica Caldwell. Now, like Amazon, Wal-Mart and others, dealers started promoting "Black Friday" deals as early as Halloween. Jeep offered zero percent financing for up to 75 months. GM teased savings of up to 20 percent of for its Buick, Chevrolet and GMC brands. Hyundai offered an extra $500 on the Sonata sedan between Nov. 20 and Nov. 30.
Ford's U.S. sales chief Mark LaNeve says sales got progressively stronger as November progressed, and the last day of the month was one of the best days this year.
Deals can be dangerous for the auto industry because they cut into profits and lower vehicles' resale value. Incentives have been creeping upward since 2011; in November, they rose an estimated $172 over last year to $3,066 per vehicle, according to the car buying site TrueCar.com.
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