Local dealers said they expect sales could go even higher this year.
Dan Nagel, general manager for Dayton auto dealership White Allen-Honda, said his dealership sales were up 27.2 percent for the year in new cars and 19 percent in used vehicles.
The dealership’s new store on Main Street off Interstate 75 helped drive sales. The new store opened in January 2015, and motorists on the interstate can see the dealership’s sign day and night.
“It was huge,” Nagel said of the year.
Nagel said customers are replacing older vehicles, and they’re more comfortable financially buying a new vehicle. Good weather in November and December also helped end the year on a strong note, he said.
“They’re in the market for a car, and they’re coming out,” he said.
Christian Hahn, general manager of Airport Toyota in Vandalia, also enjoyed a great year, he said.
The average age of the car on the road is about 11 years, and it’s been that way for the past several years, Hahn said. For many customers, the need for a new car isn’t going away, he believes.
“We anticipate 2016 being another banner year, and I think it’s evident that the job market has strengthened considerably over the last few years,” Hahn said.
Airport Toyota’s new car sales were up about 7 percent, while used vehicle sales were up about 15 percent, he said.
Jay Lawrence, general manager of Jeff Wyler Springfield auto dealerships, said 2015 was a strong year for his eight franchises.
Some dealerships were up, some were down, but overall sales for the franchises were up, Lawrence said. He put the increase at “probably less than five percent overall,” but noted that the increase in 2015 came over a record performance in 2014.
“I think it’s a combination of things,” he said. “I think there is still pent-up demand out there because of the low sales we had in 2010 and 2011.”
Financing is easier, banks are lending money to buyers more readily and the weather also cooperated at the end of the year, he said.
Strength in auto sales is good news for an array of Dayton-area businesses, including manufacturers and companies that serve the industry in myriad ways. DMAX, a Moraine manufacturer of diesel truck engines, last month announced that co-owners General Motors and Isuzu will invest $82 million into its Dryden Road plant to boost production capacity.
The plant, which has about 570 workers, expects to hire another 150, DMAX leaders said last month.
Honda employs about 14,000 people at its West Central Ohio plants, including about 1,000 workers from this area. On Tuesday, Honda reported annual sales of 1,586,551 Honda and Acura vehicles, an increase of 3 percent to beat a record set in 2007.
Thomas Schwartz, a spokesman for Kettering’s Reynolds and Reynolds, is well aware that auto sales are stronger than ever.
“That absolutely dovetails with what we’re seeing,” he said.
Reynolds, with 1,300 employees at its County Line Road campus, offers software and other products for auto dealers.
Dealers are taking advantage of the market rebound with some of the newer technologies that Reynolds has to offer — technologies that let dealerships immediately respond to potential sales leads, he said. A new Reynolds product lets dealers immediately respond to comments and questions that come into dealership web sites, he said.
“It’s all about bringing that relationship a little closer,” Schwartz said.
There are far fewer dealers serving consumers today than before the recent “Great Recession.” Nationally, there were about 4,000 more dealerships before the recession of 2007-09, Schwartz said.
And today’s buying landscape is markedly different, he said. With online research and technology shaping their experience, shoppers expect car-buying to be more rewarding, with fewer hassles, he said.
“The consumer expects a different kind of retail experience than, say, eight or ten years ago,” Schwartz said.
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