From the always bullish CommSec:
New vehicle sales remain healthy and it is not hard to see why people are updating their rides. Car affordability is at the best levels recorded, employment is rising, interest rates are at record lows and wealth levels are at record highs. Car affordability is even stronger on a “quality adjusted” basis – vehicles built in 2016 are far superior to those sold in the early 1970s…
The CommSec Car Affordability measure was improved further over the calendar year 2016. CommSec estimates that a worker on the average wage needs to work 21.7 weeks in 2016 to purchase a new Holden Commodore Evoke 3.0L V6 6A Sedan – a record low and an improvement from 22.1 weeks in 2015. In fact car affordability has improved from 31.5 weeks a decade ago…
Over the 12 months to January 1,178,670 new vehicles were sold. While sales of SUVs (442,077) hit fresh record highs in annual terms, and “other” vehicles stood at 250,630, just shy of record highs. Interest rates are unlikely to rise any time soon and car manufacturers are competing hard for business, restraining prices. In addition, all indications point to firm conditions in the job market. The area to watch is the housing market as softer home prices could restrain car buying enthusiasm – although even that seems to be an unlikely outcome.
