by Calculated Risk on 9/03/2014 11:50:00 AM

From John Sousanis at WardsAuto Counting Cars: Summer Sales Heat Up

SUMMARY: With a few exceptions, automakers are reporting higher than expected August sales, pointing to the possibility that the forecasted July 17-million SAAR, which failed to materialize, just may have been a month late coming.

WardsAuto is currently projecting sales in August at 17.06 million seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR).  This would be the highest sales rate since July 2006.

A few excerpts:

Toyota beat WardsAuto expections by nearly 9%, delivering 246,100 LVs in August. The automaker's daily sales rose 10.2% from same-month year-ago ...

[Ford] daily deliveries up just 3.9% over same-month year-ago, on total LV sales of 217,040.
...
General Motors poored a little cold water on August sales reports, recording a 2.4% DSR gain on year-ago, with LV deliveries of 272,243 units - 3% below WardsAuto's expectations for the company ...

Nissan is reporting August sales of almost 135,000 LVs, a 15.7% rise in DSR compared with same-month 2013. Volkswagen brand daily sales fell 9.6%, but the result was better than expected, with VW moving 35,181 units during the month.

Fiat-Chrysler reports over 197,000 LV deliveries in August, a massive 24.2% leap over year-ago sales