Big Is Beautiful When It Comes To Auto Sales

My car is a Honda Insight.

Sometimes it can actually be hard to see if it is in a parking lot full of pickup trucks and

SUVs.

My Insight could probably actually fit into the bed of some of the bigger pickup trucks

on the road these days.

Based on recent sales information, it appears that more and more American car buyers are favoring these types of big and

expensive vehicles.

Auto Sales Are Up

While sales of its Prius hybrid model were down 13 percent from a year ago, for

Toyota, sales of its Lexus SUV were up 28 percent and sales of its Tacoma pickup truck

increased by 29 percent.

During this same period, sales of Honda's SUVs and trucks increased 13 percent, while Ford saw

increases in the sales numbers for its F-150 model and Chevy saw sales of its Silverado pickup

increase by 34 percent compared to the same time period one year ago.

Lower Fuel Prices Help Auto Sales

Many analysts suggest that the increase in the sales of these types of vehicles is due in

large part to the relatively low gas prices that consumers are paying currently.

Gas prices nationwide in July of 2015 averaged around $2.70 per gallon.

The front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper this past week

suggested the possibility the consumers may see gas prices actually dip below $2.00 per

gallon in the not too distant future.

Another reason for the increase in auto sales of these types of vehicles is the inevitable summer

discounts that manufacturers offer at this time of year in order to clear dealer inventory to make

room for next year's models.

These discounts are very enticing to consumers and may account for the 27

percent increase in the sales of Nissan Altima that occurred in July.

The result of these impression sales numbers may be that by the end of the year,

automakers will have had their best year since the beginning of the recession several

years ago.

An impressive 1.5 million vehicles were sold across the U.S. in July of 2015, which is an

overall increase of 5 percent from the previous year.

Another big trend in auto sales is in the sale of luxury vehicles.

So far this year the sales numbers for luxury vehicle has been 1.3 percent higher this year

than last year, with 11.5 percent of all vehicles sold this year being in the luxury

class.

So it is clear that when it comes to a auto sales so far in 2015, for consumers, big really

is beautiful.