Auto News 5

When new-car sales had a hiccup in September, we wondered if that was the start of a moderation indicating that pent-up demand was beginning to get sated. Instead, we saw in October that demand is still strong, and sales jumped by 10% versus a year ago. They might have been even better, but the first two weeks of the month were sluggish as the theatrics in Washington undermined consumer confidence. October's annualized sales rate of 15.2 million vehicles was not as good as we saw during the torrid summer months, but it's better than almost anyone was predicting at the beginning of the year. All three domestic automakers saw increases of greater than 10%, putting them ahead of the industry overall. Transaction prices set a new record but incentives are starting to creep up a bit. Analysts expect that the latter to increase as we get toward the year's end, giving car buyers some help dealing with steep sticker prices -- and also greasing the wheels of the marketplace to keep the surprisingly powerful auto-sales recovery rolling along.