Vehicle registrations in June best since ’08

Arkansas auto registrations increased more than 14 percent in June, the best June in five years, Cross-Sell of Lexington, Ky., which provides analysis for the auto industry, said Monday.

There were 8,982 new vehicles registered in the state last month, up from 7,862 titles issued in June last year.

For the first six months of the year, more than 49,600 new vehicles were registered in Arkansas, up 6.3 percent from more than 46,700 in the first six months last year. The six-month total also is the most new-vehicle titles in the first six months of the year since 2008, when Cross-Sell first began providing data on Arkansas registrations.

Growth rates for the past few months have been in the 8 percent to 15 percent range, below last year’s levels of 20 percent or more.

“I think unit auto sales are pretty close to getting back to where they were before the recession,” said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “That is holding down growth rates.”

Nationally, auto sales increased 9 percent to 1.4 million in June, the most since 2007.

The average age of vehicles on the road is higher than it was before the recession began in December 2007, Pakko said. That is creating demand from consumers who wish to replace older vehicles, Pakko said.

Some economists are expecting that auto sales will continue to increase this year and throughout 2014, said Dennis Jungmeyer, president of the Arkansas Automobile Dealers Association. Jungmeyer attended an automotive conference in Rhode Island last week where economists projected that, he said.

Those economists expect up to 17 million new vehicles to be sold nationally next year, close to the sales levels of 2007 and 2008, Jungmeyer said.

Auto dealers in Arkansas remain optimistic about new vehicle sales, Jungmeyer said.

“Of course, product availability is always the question,” Jungmeyer said. “And there is some concern about interest rates rising.”

Higher interest rates would affect prices dealers have to pay to finance their inventory, Jungmeyer said.

There were 1,517 Chevrolets registered in Arkansas last month, more than any other make. The Ford F-series pickup was the most popular model with 610 titled. Almost one of every four new vehicles registered in Arkansas were full-sized pickups.

There were 12,755 used vehicles titled through automotive dealers’ sales last month, up 13.2 percent from 11,266 in June last year. Another 20,232 vehicles were titled from private transactions last month, up 4.5 percent from 19,346 in June last year.

In Arkansas, the number of titles doesn’t match vehicle sales each month. The reason is that auto buyers have as long as 30 days between purchasing vehicles and registering them. Thus, many June registrations were sales made in April.

The number of auto sales in Arkansas each month is not available from the state unless a substantial fee is paid to cover agency expense, according to the Office of Motor Vehicles.