GM’s Barra: “We’re cautiously optimistic about U.S. vehicle demand.”

[chassis]

Reuters article published late today.

Anecdotally, I am seeing what seems to be strong vehicle buying activity as evidenced by cars driving around with temporary license plates. Sales of used vehicles counts as economic activity in my book.

[eluded]

Yeah it's weird. Housing prices are at March 2018 levels. Once people sober up in the fall things will "adjust."

[The HACK]

Originally Posted by chassis

Reuters article published late today.

Anecdotally, I am seeing what seems to be strong vehicle buying activity as evidenced by cars driving around with temporary license plates. Sales of used vehicles counts as economic activity in my book.

Temp tags because DMV is shut down for 3 months. I have a friend who bought a car in January and haven’t received his permanent plates yet.

With 3 months of back log, people who bought cars in the last 3-4 months won’t likely get their tags until later in the year.

[chassis]

I’m in a small-medium size city and the local DMV is caught up. No backlog, it’s within the normal range.

Retail sales today were reported by the Fed - strong.

Local Mercedes dealer told me, “We has a great May.”

[spiceyxi]

Originally Posted by chassis

I’m in a small-medium size city and the local DMV is caught up. No backlog, it’s within the normal range.

Retail sales today were reported by the Fed - strong.

Local Mercedes dealer told me, “We has a great May.”

Retail sales were down 6% from the prior year. I don't know if I would call that strong.

Better than expected maybe, but not strong. Considering that cash was pumped in to consumers by stimulus and increased unemployment benefits it should have been healthier than anticipated. Plus, wasn't a big portion of the increase from grocery stores and clothing stores? It would be interesting how much the grocery spending increased due to more people eating at home versus increased food prices.

The estimates for store closures this year are at 25,000. Which is over double last year which was a record at 9,300 stores.

We are in uncharted waters. It is probably best to be cautiously optimistic and hopefully it is a short lived decline and the fleet sales can increase again soon.

[chassis]

Yes, cautious optimism. Optimism nevertheless.

The consumer is not dead.

The world is not over.

COVID will be forgotten soon. Soon might take a couple of years.

[aerostar]

Just wait till the $600 a week unemployment ends. Let's see how optimistic it looks then.