April Figures Show First Sign of Predicted Downturn
Retail sales of Class 8 trucks dropped sharply in April, belatedly tracking with widespread predictions that 2000 figures will fall well short of the record set in 1999.
The total sold was 20,277 vehicles, down 16.7% from the 24,332 in April 1999. For big rig manufacturers, it also marked the first falloff compared with the same four months in 1999.
John Stark, publisher of Stark’s Truck and Off-Highway Ledger, said the strong showing in the early part of this year was an illusion.
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Sales figures for the first three months of 2000 topped those of a year earlier, running 3.6% ahead of the same period in 1999. However, the April drop-off put the year-to-date total below 1999’s — 78,931 vs. 80,916 — for the first time, according to Ward’s Communications in Southfield, Mich.
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