The bad news continues for tire dealers as the downward trend that started in the spring held out through November.
Click here for December 2008 charts
Preliminary November sales results from our nationwide panel of retail tire dealers show a continued falloff in tire and service sales for November 2008 vs. November 2007. Clearly, Consumers are continuing to postpone tire and service purchases.
The Tire Review Dealer Panel reported weak final October numbers in retail passenger tire units vs. the same month last year.
Preliminary numbers for November continue to show weak retail demand. In November 2007, retail unit sales were slightly ahead of 2006. This November, units are off nearly 4% vs. 2007. In the individual tire segments, all three product areas are being hard hit.
Service Dollars
November marks six straight months where both undercar and underhood sales were consistently down, in this case approximately 2% from last year’s levels. Final October 2008 results showed undercar sales off 2% and underhood sales down 1.8%.
Dealer Comments
Dealer Panel member comments continue to reflect concerns over the economy. Here is a sampling of what they had to say:
• People are afraid to spend. They don’t even take care of preventative issues.
• We need to get our economy in shape.
• I’m trying to find economical products.
• Customers want to know if and when the price of tires will come down.
• Politicians say they are going to create jobs. How do you do that when we are losing our industry?
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