Car Dealer's First Overflow Lot in 37 Years Exposes U.S. Pileup
- Swelling new-vehicle inventory spurs deeper February discounts
- U.S. auto sales rate seen slower in February than a year ago
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For the first time in his 37 years working at New Jersey car dealerships, Larry Kull had to rent extra space to store unsold new Honda vehicles -- one of the latest signs that the record U.S. auto market is cooling.
Across dealer lots in America, inventory is piling up as automakers produce more cars than are being bought. Dealers had about 85 days worth of cars and trucks on hand at the beginning of February -- about 22 days more than at the beginning of 2017 and eight days more than a year earlier, according to Automotive News Data Center.