Easier credit, hot new cars and falling gas prices kept Americans buying vehicles at a strong pace in May despite bad economic news.
May sales totaled 1.3 million cars and trucks, up 26 percent from the same month a year earlier. It was the best May for the industry since 2008.
The good results surprised some analysts, since car sales usually hew closely to the performance of the stock market and to consumer confidence numbers. In May, confidence was wobbly and the stock market had its worst month in two years.
“We should have had a disastrous new vehicle sales month, but consumers are still interested in the new products,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for the car buying site TrueCar.com. “This was an anomaly.”
Toprak thinks June sales will stumble as people weigh troubling headlines, like Friday’s report that U.S. unemployment rose for the first time in 11 months. He expects sales to pick up at the end of the year as the economy improves and the presidential election ends political uncertainty.