DETROIT (AP) — AutoNation, the country's largest car dealership chain, made optimistic predictions for the next year as its second-quarter earnings rose 14 percent on strong growth in all of its business units.
Mike Jackson, CEO of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company, said the fundamentals are in place for continued auto sales growth in the next year, and that means more strong quarterly earnings for his company.
He says people will be replacing older cars for the foreseeable future, they've gotten used to gas prices around $3.55 per gallon, and he expects short-term interest rates on car loans to stay low despite talk by the Federal Reserve that it could reduce bond-buying activity if the economy improves. The bond buying has kept interest rates down to stimulate growth.
Jackson predicted that total U.S. auto sales would rise to the mid-15 million range this year. "There's a good chance it's going to be on the higher end of that," possibly as high as 15.75 million, Jackson said in a telephone interview Thursday. For the first half of the year, sales ran at an annual rate of about 15.4 million. That's up from 14.5 million last year and a 30-year low of 10.4 million in 2009.