“Cash for Clunkers” Hangover Taking Its Toll on Auto Sales, Reports Edmunds.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--The "Cash for Clunkers" party is over, and now the auto industry is likely to experience a painful hangover. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, anticipates a steep decline in sales in the coming weeks based upon a significant drop in “purchase intent” behavior of its Web site visitors.

“Current purchase intent is down 50 percent from the Cash for Clunkers peak, and down 11 percent from the June average,” noted Edmunds.com Senior Analyst David Tompkins, PhD. “Day by day, intent is slipping: Sunday activity was down 21% from Saturday, then Tuesday activity was down 16 percent from Monday.”

“Cash for Clunkers distorted the market in a way that benefited the industry for four weeks. Now the payback begins.” observed Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl. “Sales were stimulated at the start of the year’s prime buying season, just when they were building on their own. People rushed into purchases that many would otherwise have made later this year. The result will be lower sales in the weeks to come.”

“The sales surge depleted inventories and pushed up prices. Additionally, with inventories at low levels, many manufactures have little reason to be generous with incentives. Limited selection and higher prices will create further downward pressures on sales,” noted Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell.

Edmunds.com’s August auto sales forecast is scheduled for release on Thursday morning. Additional information can be found by visiting Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com story “Shutdown of Cash-For-Clunkers To Smack Down Industry Sales.”

For more information on Cash for Clunkers, please visit http://www.edmunds.com/cash-for-clunkers/. Lively discussions about Cash for Clunkers are taking place on Edmunds’ CarSpace.com message boards at http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f1db290.

About Edmunds Inc. (http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/)

Edmunds Inc. publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. Its most popular feature, the Edmunds.com True Market Value^®, is relied upon by millions of people seeking current transaction prices for new and used vehicles. Edmunds.com was named "Best Car Research Site" by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the "Most Useful Web Site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Study(SM), was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites by The Wall Street Journal and was rated "#1" in Keynote's study of third-party automotive Web sites. Inside Line launched in 2005 and is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. CarSpace launched in 2006 and is an automotive social networking Web site and home to the oldest and most established automotive community. AutoObserver.com launched in 2008 and provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. Edmunds Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit.