New car sales reports: Are they deliveries to customers, or to dealers?

[rimtrim]

This simple question came up in the Chevy Spark thread: When the automakers issue their monthly sales reports, do those numbers represent deliveries to final buyers (both retail and fleet), or do they represent deliveries to dealer lots?

For example, if a car carrier pulls up to Joe's Chevrolet and unloads 5 cars for dealer stock, at that point are those 5 cars counted as "sold" for the purpose of GM's monthly press release? Or, are they uncounted until a deal is actually made with a buyer?

So, that's the question. Does anybody in the industry know the answer for certain? Or, have a credible source that explains how this works? For the record, I always thought sales were only counted when delivered to a final buyer, not to the dealer's lot. But I have nothing to prove that other than feeling like I read it somewhere.

-Andrew L

[tjl]

Given the small numbers of discontinued vehicles listed as sold new months or even years after the end of production, it has to be to customers.

[CBJ]

This simple question came up in the Chevy Spark thread: When the automakers issue their monthly sales reports, do those numbers represent deliveries to final buyers (both retail and fleet), or do they represent deliveries to dealer lots?

For example, if a car carrier pulls up to Joe's Chevrolet and unloads 5 cars for dealer stock, at that point are those 5 cars counted as "sold" for the purpose of GM's monthly press release? Or, are they uncounted until a deal is actually made with a buyer?

So, that's the question. Does anybody in the industry know the answer for certain? Or, have a credible source that explains how this works? For the record, I always thought sales were only counted when delivered to a final buyer, not to the dealer's lot. But I have nothing to prove that other than feeling like I read it somewhere.

-Andrew L

Logically, it has to be sales to customers since manufacturers also report days supply for a given vehicle.

[cityjohn]

Correct, the sales info uses RDR's -- Retail Delivery Reports -- which is when the motor vehicle department is notified of a sale to an end-user customer.

[rimtrim]

Correct, the sales info uses RDR's -- Retail Delivery Reports -- which is when the motor vehicle department is notified of a sale to an end-user customer.

Thanks, this is just what I was looking for. Googling "RDR" brings up a lot more information about this.

-Andrew L

[GTRaavv]

Correct, the sales info uses RDR's -- Retail Delivery Reports -- which is when the motor vehicle department is notified of a sale to an end-user customer.

Which makes sense considering that when a month has less selling days than it did a year ago sales are generally down. If dealer deliveries were the measurement of "sales," manufacturers would just increase the number of vehicles shipped on average to match the previous year's total deliveries.