Will car sales shift the recovery up a gear?

With employment, real incomes and consumer confidence all likely to rise this year, the economic environment appears to be conducive to further growth in car sales in 2014. That said, some of the important drivers of sales growth last year are set to fade soon. And there is some evidence that car ownership has reached a saturation point. So while car sales may dab on the GDP accelerator in the next few quarters, they are unlikely to add fuel into the growth engine over the medium term.