Retail tire sell-out trends have continued to improve on a sequential basis and are picking up even more steam — not only year-over-year, but also when compared to pre-pandemic levels. Tire industry analyst and author of MTD's monthly Your Marketplace column John Healy explains why.

Following recent trends, our latest conversations with dealers leave us with a view that retail sell-out trends are continuing to trend downward, showing decreases on a sequential basis since this past October.

Feedback from dealers leaves us with a view that retail sell-out trends showed strength in October with a notable pickup in momentum from September. From a volume standpoint, surveyed dealers reported they saw unit sales improve roughly 1% to 2% compared to the prior year’s period and came in as the third highest observed growth rate in our tire demand index for the year.