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Our friends at Portales have a review on car sales
Snippet from May 25, 2016 Pivotal Events

New car inventories inching higher as sales flatten. New car industry data released over the last week clearly point to flattening sales as inventories are inching higher. First, J.D. Power projected that retail new car sales in May 2016 would increase by just 1% YoY on a selling-day adjusted basis, with retail sales increasing just 0.4% for the first five months of 2016 compared to the year ago period.

The lackluster sales growth is taking place despite higher incentives, easy financing terms, record lease penetration, and a greater proliferation of subprime lending. We expect lease penetration likely increased to about 31% of retail new vehicle sales in Q1’16 when the data is released by Experian Automotive in the next couple of weeks, a new record high and up from 28% for all of 2015. The last peak lease penetration rate was 26% in 1999.

Subprime lending has increased as well, and we are at least anecdotally receiving comments that captive finance companies have increased their presence in this segment of the market to support new car sales.

ncentives have also increased, now representing about 10% of average transaction prices, which is also at peak levels. And while we would not characterize new car inventories as bloated at this point on a historical basis, they are clearly increasing as well. Automotive News, for example, reported the “days supply” of new car/truck inventories reached 70 days on May 1, 2016, up from 65 days in the year ago period and the historical average of 67 days for the month.

​We would note that the “inventory creep” is taking place despite the higher incentives, lax financing (rates and down payments), record lease penetration, and longer loan terms. With off-lease vehicles expected to hit a record 3.1M units in 2016 and move steadily higher over the next three years, we believe the auto cycle is likely at its peak both from sales and financing standpoints, and that virtually all signs of an eventual industry “roll over” are now in place.