Autos still OK

The SAAR for total sales is projected to reach 17.7 million units in February 2016, up 1.4 million units from 16.4 million a year ago when much of the country was snowbound and the highest rate since 2000 when it briefly reached 18.9 million units.

“The year-over-year sales growth projection for February is strong, but we need to keep in mind that it is aided by the fact that sales in the upper East Coast, Midwest and Texas were hampered by weather last February,” John Humphrey, senior vice president of the global automotive practice at J.D. Power cautioned.

(VW teases new “trendy, affordable” new SUV concept. For more, Click Here.)

“To further put the February sales projection into context, while the retail SAAR of 13.9 million is unquestionably a high level of vehicle demand, it is the lowest monthly level since last June and well below the 15.3 million pace last September.”

 SWatch your seasona; adjuster.  It's the purple line, the blue is the actual sales.  Now we saw earlier that the sub prime auto default index is up, up to near;y recession ;levels.  So the rates on car loans is going up, quite a bit to cover default risk.

But, still, even if the auto sales is a lagging indicators, these numbers still look good.  We may still have a fairly  mild down turn,  The sudden stop, the negative feedback, comes from New York and California governments.