Year-End Numbers for Local Dealerships Show Month Lost to Pandemic

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Local auto dealers ended 2020 about a month’s worth of sales off pace from the year before, a sign that outside the month they were closed early on in the pandemic sales remained solid.

In total, dealerships sold a total of 54,873 new and used vehicles to residents of Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, according to data from the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers Association. That number is down 4,282 from the year-end total in 2019. For April, local dealers were off more than half – 56% – from their 2019 totals, as state shutdown orders limited what could be done in showrooms.

In December, dealerships sold 4,357 vehicles, down 336 from the same month in 2019. New-car sales in the three counties totaled 2,533, down 141 from a year ago; used-car sales were 1,738, down 216 from last year.

Sweeney Chevrolet easily topped the local sales chart for both December and 2020 as a whole. The Boardman dealership sold 197 vehicles in December, bringing the full-year total to 2,024. It was the only dealership to surpass 2,000 sales.

Following on the monthly new-car sales chart was Sweeney Buick GMC, Boardman, with 152; Greenwood Chevrolet, Austintown, with 142; Taylor Kia of Boardman with 127; Boardman Subaru, Boardman, with 108; and Stadium GM in Salem with 104.

For all of 2020, Greenwood Chevrolet ranked No. 2 with 1,566 new cars sold, just ahead of Boardman Subaru with 1,549. Sweeney Buick GMC was fourth with 1,412 and Taylor Kia was fifth with 1,371.

Across the dealership association’s 22-county footprint, new- and used-car sales fell to 86,427, 3,623 off pace from 2019. In December, sales totaled 6,944, down 124 from the same month a year ago.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.