LI auto registrations up 5.2% in November, association says

Long Islanders registered 5.2 percent more new cars and trucks in November than a year earlier, says the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association. Credit: Daniel Brennan
Long Islanders registered 5.2 percent more new cars and trucks in November than a year earlier, a local dealer association said.
Once again, the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association said Suffolk’s gain was much weaker than Nassau’s — 1.9 percent compared with 7.8 percent for Nassau.
Local economists have attributed the weaker gain in Suffolk to generally lower incomes and personal wealth in the county. That’s due partly to its population being younger on average. Further, Nassau residents can more easily commute to Manhattan, where job growth has been stronger than on Long Island.
For the year through November, registrations of new vehicles gained 2.9 percent on Long Island over a year earlier.
Nationally the gain this year through November in sales, which closely approximate new registrations, was 5.4 percent, according to the trade paper Automotive News.
For the 12-county metropolitan region covered by the auto dealers group, including an estimate for December, the gain was 6 percent for all of 2015 versus a year earlier, the group said.
Long Island results for December aren’t available yet. But a consultant who prepares the report for the auto dealers group estimated a 9 percent year-over-year gain in registrations in December for the 12-county region. “The metro area market ended 2015 with a bang,” the report said.
The dealer group report didn’t offer a breakdown of vehicle types by county. For the 12-county region in November, registrations of passenger cars fell by 6.4 percent from a year earlier, while those of light trucks — vans, SUVs and pickups — rose by 21.4 percent, the apparent result of dramatically lower gasoline prices.
That’s been a trend nationally as well. Through December, passenger cars sales fell by 2.3 percent from 2014, Automotive News said. Truck sales rose by 12.8 percent.
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