The market for new vehicles in Colorado shrunk by more than 16% in the first nine months of 2020 compared to the same period last year.

“While Colorado’s new vehicle registrations through September are in downhill territory, the percentage of decline has leveled off from a month ago, and Colorado’s numbers are better than the U.S. new vehicle market by nearly a full percentage point,” said Tim Jackson, president of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.

“In Colorado, dealership lots and showrooms have less inventory for sale of certain popular models across brands due to the pandemic,” he said. “The reason for that is auto manufacturing plants were paused, millions were put out of work, and now automakers are struggling to catch up with inventory demand.”

CADA indicated that there were 157,821 new vehicle registrations in Colorado to date, compared with more than 188,000 in 2019. Registrations of light trucks only dropped by 11%, while car registrations declined by more than one-third.

Nationally, only Lincoln and RAM vehicle sales increased slightly over the previous year. 

The pandemic also affected other elements of the vehicle market: used car activity was down 17% and hybrid and electric vehicle sales dropped by between 0.6% and 3.8%, depending on the type of car.