DETROIT (AP/WMOT) — General Motors and Nissan, two of Tennessee's largest employers, had record setting sales in July.
GM, with a large plant in Spring Hill, saw a 16 percent rise in sales when compared to July 2012. Franklin based Nissan reported and 11 percent gain, its best July ever.
Only Volkswagen, which has a large production facility in Chattanooga, had a down month. Its sales were off slightly more than 3 percent as sales of the top-selling Jetta compact fell.
Tim Green is Sales Manager at Victory Nissan in Shelbyville. He says his dealership had a good July, because the local economy is looking up.
“This particular area is improving. Home sales are up which helps drive the market also. People are a little bit more at ease about going out and purchasing a new vehicle.”
Green says August also looks promising.
“Children going back to school, families coming in off of vacation, more people at home, so they have more time to get out and look and check out all the product and decide what they want to do.”
Sales figures for July show that pickup trucks were the top sellers nationwide, but people also bought a lot of SUVs and smaller cars.