New-vehicle registrations in April rose almost 8 percent in Arkansas, the first increase in titles since January, according to Cross-Sell of Lexington, Ky., which provides market analysis for the automotive industry.
There were 7,787 new vehicles registered in the state last month, compared with 7,225 in April 2012, Cross-Sell said.
For the first three months of the year, titles grew by 10 percent compared with the same period last year.
“Even in light of [the 10 percent increase], 8 percent seems like a fairly solid gain that is sustainable,” Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said Tuesday. “That’s unlike the 20 percent-plus rates we had been seeing as the market was recovering.”
For much of the past couple of years, titles have increased in the 15 percent to 25 percent range or higher each month, a pace that is difficult to maintain.
The increase in Arkansas registrations reflected national auto sales in April. Overall, sales nationally rose 8.5 percent to almost 1.3 million, making it the best April for the national automotive market since 2007, the Associated Press reported.
At April’s pace, there would be 14.9 million new vehicles sold in 2013 in the United States, which means April was the first month since October that the annual sales pace fell below 15 million.
In Arkansas, auto registrations don’t match vehicle sales each month.
Auto buyers have up to 30 days between purchasing vehicles and the deadline to register titles. Many April registrations were for sales made in March.
The number of auto sales in Arkansas each month is not available from the state agencies.
Potential buyers haven’t been scared off by high gasoline prices this year, said Dennis Jungmeyer, president of Arkansas Automobile Dealers Association.
“The concern about gasoline hitting $4 a gallon this summer seems to have subsided,” Jungmeyer said Tuesday. “The price seems to be trickling back down, which is obviously good.”
In Arkansas, the average price of a gallon of gasoline Tuesday was $3.42, up from $3.29 a month ago, according to auto club AAA.
In Arkansas last month, registrations for new Chevrolets totaled 1,258, more than any make in the state, followed by Ford with 1,127 titles. The Ford full-size pickup accounted for 524 registrations last month, more than Chevrolet full-size pick-up registrations of 424.
There were 1,784 full-size pickups titled last month, accounting for more than one of every five vehicles registered in Arkansas.
There were 13,479 used vehicles titled after dealer sales in April, up about 9 percent from almost 12,340 in April last year.
Another 20,851 used vehicles were titled in April as part of private transactions, almost unchanged from almost 20,910 titles issued in private deals in April 2012.
Registrations in May will be hard-pressed to top May last year, when there were almost 10,200 titles issued for new vehicles. That is the highest one-month total in titles since Cross-Sell began supplying data in 2008.
Business, Pages 25 on 05/22/2013