April U.S. Light-Vehicle Inventory Steady

April’s month-end inventory remained below the level needed to support a healthy sales uptick as the prime spring selling season gets under way, keeping the month’s new LV sales pace from reaching the lofty March rate.

U.S. dealers had 3,597,139 light vehicles on their lots at the end of April, just 3,000 more than the 3,594,063 units tallied a month earlier and 65,167 vehicles less than a year earlier.

The small April increase came despite a significant production overbuild during the month that saw assembly plants turn out 38,300 more vehicles than had been scheduled.

Without that output lift, much of which was absorbed by sales, the April stock count would have been much lower, casting a pall over the May new-vehicle market. 

While April’s inventory count equaled a more-normal 65 days’ supply compared with a low 58 days’ on March 31, the increase was due entirely to a slow April selling pace.

What’s more, many volume import brands remained short of inventory, including Subaru, with a mere 20 days’ supply; Toyota, at 48, and Hyundai, with 57 days’.

The available car inventory slipped to 1,672,734 units in April, 0.4% less than the 1,678,951 units counted a month earlier and 5.0% less than the 1,761,174 cars held by dealers in April 2014. Only the German makes increased the number of cars in stock April 30, an 8.0% increase to 72,857 units from 67,475 on March 31, although that was 22.0% less than in April a year earlier.

Dealer light-truck stock increased by 9,300 units, or 0.5%, to 1,924,405 units in April, from 1,915,112 in March, and was 1.2% better than the 1,901,122 units held at the close of April 2014.

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