New vehicle registration has revved back since the Great Recession in Tulare County mirroring a trend seen across the nation.
“We’re not all the way back from the high during the 2005/06 period” says the county’s largest auto dealer Don Groppetti of Visalia.
Still the improvement is dramatic
Groppetti received a report of all new registrations and through July of this year there were 6756 new vehicles in the county.
By comparison through July 2010 only 3937 cars and trucks were registered.
“Id says we are still some 15 to 20% below all time highs but we’ve made it most of the way back.”
Talking about the market Groppetti says truck sales have rebounded but the “recreational user” of trucks is not what it used to be.Instead, mid-size and SUV brands are the strong players.
Since the recession some dealers in the Visalia car sales market have changed like Frank Serpa, who has exited. Only his Kia line remains independent being operated by dealer Dwight Nelson. The Surroz family has sold its Chrysler store in Visalia to the Lampe family but continue to run their BMW dealership .
Around California the California New Car Dealers Assn says the California new vehicle market had another double digit percentage increase in the Second Quarter of this year, with new light vehicle registrations improving 12.4 percent versus a year earlier.
It was the eleventh consecutive quarterly year-over-year increase. The Assn is now projecting that this year’s annual total will approach 1.7 million units, up11.1 percent from 2011 and more than a 60 percent increase over the recessionary low point in 2009.
Used Car Sales Down
Also during the second quarter of this year used vehicle registrations fell 5.3 percent. Four year old vehicle sales declined due to tight supplies Used registrations in the state declined 5.3 percent during the first six months of this year.
The California new vehicle market has been growing at a faster pace than the used market for the past several years. New vehicle registrations increased 25 percent in 2012, while used registrations were up just 1.9 percent.
Franchised new car dealerships continued to increase their share of the overall state used vehicle market. Franchised dealers accounted for 18.6 percent of the market in the first half of this year, up from 12.9 percent in 2009 and 17.5 percent last year.
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