Automakers are about to do something in the US that's never happened before

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Buy up!

Automakers selling cars and trucks in the US will report November sales on Tuesday, and the thinking from the analyst community is that the annual sales pace will clock in very close to, at, or above 18 million new vehicles sold.

Barring a horrible December, that means we're about to see a record year for auto sales in the US.

The previous annual peak was 17.4 million, set 15 years ago in 2000. The sales pace has moved above 18 million since then, on a monthly basis, but we've never wrapped up a year at that level.

It's a pretty astonishing figure when you consider that the pace plunged to less than 10 million in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis. The crawl back since then has been steady, if gradual. In fact, it's been a strong positive in the US economic recovery.