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Good News For Auto Industry & Car Consumers

DENVER (CBS4) - There is some encouraging news out of Detroit as August was the best month for the Big Three since 2009.

Compared to last August Ford says sales were up 13 percent from 2011, General Mothers up 10 percent and Chrysler was up 14 percent.

Big pickups were the top sellers.

It's good news for the auto industry and good news for those looking to buy a car.

Tim Jackson is president of the Colorado Auto Dealers Association. He says the trend of big increases in sales is definitely true for Colorado.

"Colorado is up 20 percent year-to-date in new car sales over last year. Last year was up 15 percent over the year before," Jackson said. "So certainly people are buying new cars."

The rising demand helped push total nationwide car sales to over 14 million last month. And in Colorado it's even more good news.

"Colorado is leading the trend. The data is much better as far as new car sales," Jackson said. "We're up 20.5 percent in Colorado. The national number up is only 11.2. So we're tracking almost double the percentage increase in sales."

-- New models coming on to showroom floors make it more likely to get a deal.

-- Dealerships are actually doing everything they can to get you to drive away in a new car.

-- There are good financing deals for all credit types. There is dealer and manufacturer cash to be used to further entice buyers.

Jackson says the reason for the trend in Colorado when it comes to car sales being so good is Colorado seems to be recovering from the recession faster than other states as unemployment is tracking lower.

Within auto sales there is another trend that translates well for the economy -- the housing market. When home builders work in construction sites they tend to invest in equipment like pickup trucks.

Gas mileage is also playing a role in the increase in car sales. Newer models are lighter than older ones, which means they can be equipped with small but powerful V-6 engines. They are just as strong but use less gas.

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