The auto sales numbers are out and the SAAR is 14.1 Million, the most since May 2008 according to Bloomberg.

SAAR stands for seasonally adjusted annual sales rate, extrapolated from month sales data.

Much of this is due to Cash for Clunkers. Without cash for clunkers we have estimated:

GM and Ford each said that without the rebates, the annual sales rate in August would have been 10.5 million vehicles, an improvement from the 9.7 million rate in June, the last month without the incentives.

GM expects U.S. auto sales to total 10.5 million for 2009, while Ford projects the figure to be 10.5 million to 11 million. Last year’s total was 13.2 million. Both automakers projected sales to be stronger in the year’s second half.

The SAAR rates were July, 11.2 million and a 9.6 million average for the entire 2009 year before cash for clunkers.

Earlier today, Ford, whose sales rose 17%, actually missed expectations of a 39% sales increase.

There are winners and losers in this months sales:

Ford’s August total jumped 17 percent, Toyota climbed 6.4 percent and Honda advanced 9.9 percent. GM deliveries fell 20 percent, Chrysler’s slid 15 percent and Nissan dropped 2.9 percent, the companies said today.

So, 2 of the 3 US auto makers have declining sales. So, gee wiz, maybe they should have done that cash for clunkers program just for U.S. based auto companies. Although considering how many jobs are offshore outsourced from U.S. auto manufacturing plus the Japanese have U.S. plants...
well...how well would buy American work when our own companies aren't exactly made in America these days?