Car sales flourish amid ‘demand problem’ E-cars on rise; used cars remain rare commodity

By K EITH J O ’C ONNOr

Special to The Republican

As the new year began, the Cox Automotive forecast was for U.S. auto sales to finish 2022 down 8% year over year, closing with the lowest sales volume in a decade.

“In what started as a year with a supply problem, 2022 is ending with a demand problem,” the report noted, citing aggressive interest rates as the culprit pushing consumers out of the market for a new vehicle.

Looking ahead to 2023, Cox Automotive’s many predictions include new vehicle inventories continuing to climb, new vehicle sales growing as used sales decline, sales of electric vehicles surpassing 1 million units in the U.S. for the first time and dealership service operation volumes and revenue climbing.

Affordability may well be the greatest challenge following a year when elevated retail prices and high auto loan interest rates combined to produce record monthly payments in 2022 — when average car payments were about $840 for a SUV and $1,000 for a truck.

But, 2022 sales weren’t all doom and gloom for some area dealerships, although they faced the same unwelcome challenges as many others across the country.

At Marcotte Ford in Holyoke, overall sales were up and that was “a big accomplishment,” said Mike Filomeno, general manager.

“While we still went through supply and chip issues in our industry,

“We are proud to be one of those dealers recognizing the role electric vehicles will play in the future. On our part it involves a huge investment to build an infrastructure to deal with the sales and servicing of electric vehicles.”