Consumer Spending on New Vehicles Forecast at All-Time High for December

J.D. Power and strategic partner LMC Automotive have released their final new-vehicle sales and production forecast for 2013, and they expect December sales to rise 4% over the same month in 2012, with an average transaction price of $30,500--a $500 increase per vehicle over last December. According to the forecast, consumers will spend more than $34 billion on new vehicles in December of 2013, a new record for the month thanks to higher average transaction prices and continued strong retail sales.

"Retail sales in 2013 are expected to reach 12.8 million, with consumer spending reaching a record $375 billion--a $40 billion increase from 2012," said John Humphrey, senior vice president of the global automotive practice at J.D. Power.