The California Motor Car Dealers Association (CMCDA) announced that new light vehicle registrations in California declined 5.5% during the first half of this year versus a year earlier.

The report predicts that new light vehicle registrations (including retail and fleet transactions) in the state will decline 3.1% from 2005 to 2006. There are a multitude of reasons for the projected decline in registrations this year. Among them are high fuel prices, elevated consumer debt levels, and rising interest rates.

CMCDA does not believe that the market is on the precipice of a pronounced and prolonged decline. Although we expect a decline this year, registrations are still likely to exceed 2,090,000 units, which historically is a very good year.

My point for including this in the blog is because new car buyers will do one of two things when they stop buying new cars…

They will hold off buying a new car for a while, or they will buy a clean used car instead and thats always good news for anyone involved in buying and selling cars for profit.