Austin new car sales better start in 2013

AUSTIN – The new year got off to a better start for Austin area new car dealers. January saw sales of new vehicles rocket up 62 percent over the same month in 2012, according to new data from Freeman Auto Report.

Austin area dealers sold 10,069 new vehicles in January, compared with 6,210 in the same month last year, according to Freeman Auto Report, which tracked sales in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Burnet, Blanco and Caldwell counties.

It’s the first month to top 10,000 sales locally in more than two years.

The Austin sales leap in January follows a tough December, which saw Austin area auto sales drop more than 10 percent. That decline was the exception for 2012, however, as sales for the year as a whole finished up 14.6 percent over 2011.

January put Austin auto dealers on a pace to sell more than 120,000 new vehicles in 2013. Local auto sales topped 100,000 in 2012 for the first since since 2007, when 100,090 new vehicles were sold locally.

Read more at the Austin American-Statesman.