Car Sales In May Hitting A Bump In The Road

DETROIT (WWJ) - It's starting to look like May is going to be a "bump in the road" for the recovery in car sales.  Many car companies backed off on incentives and it appears that some customers have decided to wait for the deals to come back.

WWJ AutoBeat Reporter Jeff Gilbert notes that the month of May started off very weak. And according to J.D. Power analyst Jeff Schuster the other issue is the shortage of some Japanese products.

New deals and the Memorial Day weekend are expected to have the month end on a high note.

"We would expect some of the slow start to be made up by month's end, I think when it's all said and done we are going to be looking at a selling rate that is likely to be significantly below what we saw in April," says Schuster.

There is also the perception of a shortage that is in effect, "We could be getting into a situation that buyers are hearing there is a shortage and they are not actually going into the dealerships and looking, they are waiting," notes Schuster.

In April the sales rate was around 13 million, Schuster says in May we would be lucky to see 12 million.