TrueCar.com, the authority on new car pricing information, trends and forecasting, today released its November 2012 sales and incentives forecast.  The forecast shows the following:

• For November 2012, new light vehicle sales in the U.S. (including fleet) is expected to be 1,120,088 units, up 12.7 percent from November 2011 and up 2.6 percent from October 2012 (on an unadjusted basis)
• The November 2012 forecast translates into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate ("SAAR") of 15.2 million new car sales, up from 13.5 million in November 2011 and up from 14.3 million in October 2012
• Retail sales are up 13.1 percent compared to November 2011 and up 6.3 percent from October 2012
• Fleet and rental sales are expected to make up 16.1 percent of total industry sales in November 2012
• The industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,764 in November 2012, which represents an increase of 4.4 percent from November 2011 and increase of 19.3 percent from October 2012
• Used car sales* are estimated to be 2,685,944, up 3.8 percent from November 2011 and down 11.7 percent from October 2012.  The ratio of new to used is estimated to be 1:3 for November 2012

"November was a strong month for new car sales and the impact from hurricane Sandy helped to boost auto sales to its highest since February 2008," said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst for TrueCar.com. "Import automakers got the biggest lift due to some increased incentive spending building momentum heading into next year. We don't expect any major impact on auto sales from the ongoing fiscal cliff discussions."

Forecasts for the top eight manufacturers for November 2012:

"Incentives are expected to increase nearly 20 percent in November and to their highest levels in over two years," said Kristen Andersson, analyst for TrueCar.com. "Nissan's incentive spend increased by almost 80 percent while the Asian automakers incentives also grew by over 20 percent. GM was the only domestic automaker that increased incentive spending last month."