New vehicle registrations jump to 10-month high in July

El Paso County new vehicle registrations jumped 17.1 percent in July from a year ago, the fourth consecutive month that registrations have increased and the highest monthly total since September 2009, according to a report from the county Clerk & Recorder’s Office.

Local auto dealers credited improved consumer confidence, pent-up demand, easier credit and a flurry of new model introductions by major automakers for bringing more buyers into their showrooms during recent months, a surge they say shows few signs of slowing down. The sales gains have prompted some dealers to start expanding their sales staffs in the wake of the industry’s two worst sales years since the early 1990s.

“We are seeing more (customer) traffic than we have in a long time,” said Ben Faricy, president of The Faricy Boys Chrysler Jeep in northeast Colorado Springs. “A lot of it is that consumers are confident enough to return to the market. Gas prices are steady, banks are opening up a little bit so that buyers who would not been able to get approved 12 months ago are getting approved now, and (lending) rates are almost at an all-time low.”

Mike Cimino, vice president of Phil Long Automotive Group, said sales buyers are jumping back into the market because their vehicles “are getting old and it is time to replace them after four or five years. It is pent-up demand after sales being down for four years.” He said sales have been growing each month this year, and the company’s 12 Front Range dealerships have added more than 30 sales personnel in the past 45 days to keep up with demand.

Cimino and Faricy also credited Ford and Jeep with rolling out redesigned models in recent months, including Ford’s 2011 Explorer and Jeep’s 2011 Grand Cherokee, that have helped bring more customer traffic into local dealerships.

Dave Keating, general manager of Dave Solon Kia in northern Colorado Springs, credited improvements in the Kia vehicle line in recent years with helping to fuel a 141.7 percent surge last month in Kia registrations from a year ago. Other brands with big gains in July included Volkswagen, Mazda, Jeep and GMC, while Pontiac and Saturn, two brands discontinued by General Motors, had the largest sales declines.

According to the Clerk & Recorder’s report, county residents registered 1,362 new vehicles last month; registrations typically take place about 45 days after a vehicle sale. Through the first seven months of the year, registrations totaled 8,411 or 9.3 percent higher than the same period a year ago.

The industry still has a long way to go to reach the levels it did earlier in the decade; the county’s registrations fell 18.1 percent in 2008 and 25.5 percent in 2009 and last year’s total was the lowest since 1970.

Car sales nationwide in July were up 5.1 percent from a year earlier and 6.6 percent from the previous month, but still remain nearly 30 percent below the industry’s peak sales year in 2005, the Associated Press reported earlier this month.