New-Car Sales Rise in Mahoning Valley

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Across the Mahoning Valley, new-car sales rose 2.7% as 2,930 vehicles were sold, according to data from the Automobile Dealers Association of Eastern Ohio. The used car market faltered as sales were down 7.4% with 3,570 cars, trucks and SUVs sold in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

The top eight best-selling models and 13 of the top 15 in the three counties were all American-made, the Chevrolet Equinox leading the ninth straight month; 223 were sold, an 82.8% increase from September 2014.

Rounding out the top five were the Chevy Silverado with 166 sold, the Chevy Malibu, 112; the Ford Escape, 91; and the GMC Terrain, 89.

In its first month of sales, 47 of the redesigned 2016 Chevy Cruze, built at General Motors’ Lordstown Complex, were sold, while the Cruze Limited – which keeps the past generation’s body style – sold 49. Combining both figures, Cruze sales dropped 62.4% from a year ago, when 255 were sold in the Mahoning Valley.

Sweeney Chevrolet, Boardman, led dealerships in the sale of new vehicles, moving 204 from its lot in September, an increase of 28.4% from a year ago. Greenwood Chevrolet, Austintown, finished second with 177, followed by Sweeney Buick GMC, Boardman, 142; Stadium GM Superstore, Salem, 140; and Taylor Kia, Boardman, 129.

Sweeney Chevrolet and Greenwood Chevrolet tied for combined new and used vehicle sales as each tallied 276. For Sweeney, the mark was an increase of 40 cars, trucks and SUVs from a year ago, while for Greenwood, it represents a decrease of nine.

Sales of new Volkswagen cars and SUVs were down to 20 vehicles in the Mahoning Valley from 37 a year ago. On Sept. 18, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had found that Volkswagen installed a device on some of its diesel engines to thwart testing for nitrogen oxide emissions.

Nationwide, Volkswagen sales rose 0.56% to 26,141. Its models using the turbodiesel injection engine, which was altered for federal tests, mostly reported sales losses. The Jetta saw a drop of 24.1% to 7,773, while Beetle sales fell to 1,539, a 15.5% decrease and the Passat fell 0.7% to 7,228. Volkswagen reported sales of the Golf line rose 50.6% to 5,251. Not all versions of the four models carry the diesel engine found with the test-beating software.

Pictured: Chevrolet 2015 Equinox LTZ.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.