Dealers should see a rise in sales this month as 2013 continues to be a stellar year for the auto industry, USA TODAY reported.
Positive forecasts show that buyers have shaken off the government shutdown. Kelley Blue Book predicts an 8 percent rise in auto sales in October compared to the same month last year. Edmunds.com is even more optimistic, predicting an increase of 12.7 percent over the same period.
Auto sales were especially slow during the first two weeks of October in the Atlantic coastal region, according to KBB. The area has the country's highest concentration of government workers, and sales fell more than 6 percent during the shutdown but improved once the government opened for business again.
The shutdown could have halted the momentum of auto sales, which have been a bright spot in the country's still lagging economy, according to Edmunds.
"It looks like the government shutdown ended just in the nick of time," Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell, said in a statement. "The week-by-week data suggests that consumers started to get jittery by the middle of the month. But with the government back to work, most lost sales should be made up in the latter half of the month."
An earlier KBB survey showed people were waiting for the government shutdown to end before purchasing a new vehicle.
Approximately 18 percent of people who were planning to buy a new car in the next six months said they would wait until the government shutdown or debt ceiling is figured out.
The government shutdown also affected the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which issues safety recalls and assess consumer's safety complaints. The NHTSA was unable to post any new recalls during the government shutdown but is now back in business.
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