New vehicle registrations last year in Colorado were down 12.5% from 2019 amid the coronavirus pandemic, a car industry trade group reported this week — a drop far less than the 50% plunge between 2007 and 2009 during the Great Recession.

The state’s 260 new vehicle dealers last year sold 220,921 new passenger cars and light trucks, which includes pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, according to data from the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association. The data measures registration of new vehicles with county governments as collected by Experian and excludes fleet transactions to rental car companies and corporate and government fleets.

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“Cars have become essential. People need them to go to work, shopping or other trips. People don’t want to get on buses, trains or other forms of public transportation during the (COVID-19) pandemic,” dealer association President Tim Jackson said. Ridership on Regional Transportation District buses and trains was down 70% last year from 2019. The district covers most of the Denver area, serving about 3 million people.

In El Paso County, new vehicle registrations in 2020 fell 14.6% from 2019 to 21,929, the lowest annual total since 2011 , according to data compiled by Colorado Interactive for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Economic Forum.

Colorado’s new car registrations down by nearly 35%

The county’s registration total for December was off 18% from December 2019 to 2,004. The industry had a wild ride in 2020, with county registrations plunging to a 53-year low in March before setting a record of 3,498 registrations seven months later in October. Comparable data is not available for the Denver area.

Much of the statewide drop came from passenger cars — registrations last year were down 32.4% from 2019, while light truck registrations were down 7.1%.

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Toyota, Ford and Subaru were the best-selling makes in the state in 2020, unchanged from 2019. Genesis, Lincoln, Ram, Kia and Volvo were the only brands among the 36 tracked by the association to report increased registrations from 2019. Chrysler had the biggest decline at 37.7%.

Registrations of used vehicles took a bigger hit, falling 15.6% to 211,236, the second consecutive year new vehicles outsold used after three years of the opposite.

Report: Colorado vehicle registrations down 16% in 2020

Registration totals don’t correspond to sales from the same month since buyers have up to 60 days to register a new vehicle.