ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Based on its May sales totals, the American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA) reported that a larger percentage of new vehicles sold during the month came from international brands.
Asian nameplates saw a healthy increase in market share during May, while European brands experienced only a slight increase. The association said the latter has been hampered by Volkswagen's continued poor performance.
Industrywide, 1,536,276 light vehicles were sold in May of this year, a 6% decline from the year-ago period but a 1.2% year-to-date increase, according to AIADA. Asian brands accounted for 47% of May sales, up from 45.7% in April, while domestic and European nameplates accounted for 44.2% and 8.8% respectively.
"While sales slowed last month, dealers of international brands remain on track for a record-setting year," said AIADA President Cody Lusk. "May 2015 was a tremendous month for auto sales, so it's not surprising to see a small dip in May 2016, particularly with two less sales days on the calendar.”
The small dip Lusk mentioned was in reference to May's seasonally adjusted annual rate, which, according to AutoData Corp., fell from 17.7 million in May 2015 to 17.45 million. However, the rate was up from April's 17.42 million SAAR.
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