US car maker November sales vary greatly promotional discounts

New car sales in the United States in November, released by major auto makers Friday, are mixed, forecasting fierce competition in December as they are eager to sell their cars by the end of the year and make the figures for 2017 look better.

Data Picture: February 2014, McCall, Colorado, USA, a GM dealer for sale at a vehicle. REUTERS / Rick Wilking
Car manufacturers are trying to sell the 2017 models, offering consumers a big discount by the end of the year. In 2016, the industry posted a record sales of 17.55 million units.

According to Autodata, which tracks industry sales figures, the seasonally adjusted annual sales of cars and light trucks in the United States dropped to 17.48 million in November, down from 17.71 million in the same month a year earlier. This is basically in line with the forecast of 17.5 million analysts forecast by Thomson Reuters.

According to consulting firm J.D. Power and LMC, 16 months of discounts in more than 10% of the average transaction price over the past 17 months have been found by experts to be unhealthy and unsustainable.