By Thomas Paulson, Head of Market Insights CarMax reported strong quarterly results with increases of +6.2% for comp-unit sales, +3.0% for gross profit per retail used unit, and +8.2% for CAF income. Additionally, management shared that trends in March / April had strengthened; healthy sourcing of 15% more vehicles in the quarter will allow CarMax to meet that increased demand. The chart below shows the T28D trend in traffic and conversion rate at its locations, and that is overlaid onto BEA PCE figures industry-wide for used cars (% ch YoY), as well as CarMax’s results and commentary.

Earlier this week we examined how air travel fared during Thanksgiving 2024 (short answer: flat for the last 4 years): https://advanresearch.com/air-travel-steady-during-thanksgiving But as we all know, the other favorable method of travel for Americans is the symbol of freedom: the automobile. Traditionally, Thanksgiving week was the most traffic jammed travelled period of the year. How did this and prior years fare? To get a full picture, here we compare the miles travelled for the whole week, from Saturday before Thanksgiving until Sunday after Thanksgiving, versus the miles traveled for each year (excluding December, for which we don’t have 2024 data yet), so we can see not only the absolute but also the relative trends vs what happens throughout the year.