That is up about 5% from January 2015, and up about 1.4% from the 17.2 million annual sales rate last month.
Click on graph for larger image.
This graph shows the historical light vehicle sales from the BEA (blue) and an estimate for December (red, light vehicle sales of 17.46 million SAAR from WardsAuto).
This close to the consensus forecast of 17.5 million SAAR (seasonally adjusted annual rate).
The second graph shows light vehicle sales since the BEA started keeping data in 1967.
This was at expectations, and vehicle sales in 2016 are off to a solid start.