US April market yields an ‘earnings delight’ for OEMs

Light vehicle sales in the US continued to grow in April, though some of this momentum stems from delayed purchases earlier in the year due to bad weather. Autodata figures put the month's total at about 1.45 million units, a rise of 4.6% year-on-year, for a seasonally-adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 16.5 million. This was short of what some had expected but most forecasters agree the market remains on course to end the year at around the 17 million mark.