J.D. Power Predicts Improved Car Sales in 2010

This comes in the face of predictions from politically conservative analysts that sales would drop off substantially following the end of the Cash for Clunkers program. J.D. Power cites several factors to repudiate this more negative line of thinking.

First of all, an improved credit market and an upswing in consumer confidence should help, as should smoothly functioning financial markets (well, at least a little more smoothly functioning than last year).

The firm also expects sales to pick up for the remaining months of 2009, increasing to 12 million units on an annualized basis for August. The final tally should include 200,000 more units than originally expected. This can be partly attributed to the government’s Cash for Clunkers program.

Auto Upswing: J.D. Power Predicts Sales Jump for 2010 (Autoblog)