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U.S. Carmakers Post Strongest July Sales Since 2006

August 1, 2013 by

General Motors, the nation’s largest automaker, posted the largest increase, of 16 percent, with double-digit sales growth for all four of its brands. Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Group both said sales rose 11 percent last month, on the strength of pickup trucks and smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.

“For G.M., July was the most well-balanced month of the year from a retail sales standpoint; trucks were hot, but so were small cars and family vehicles,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president for United States sales operations. “Our experience shows that the difference between good sales and great sales in a slow-growth economy is how many new products you have to offer, and we are starting to hit our sweet spot.”

Toyota said its sales rose 16.5 percent, while Nissan reported an increase of 10.9 percent for the month. Volkswagen was the only automaker to report a drop in sales, of 3.3 percent.

Over all, the monthly sales rate puts annual industrywide sales at 15.8 million vehicles for the year, up from 14.1 million last year.

As in recent months, pickup trucks were especially popular last month as a recovery in housing and energy, coupled with pent-up demand, drew shoppers into dealerships, the automakers said.

Sales for G.M.’s trucks rose 44 percent. Ford said its F-Series sales rose 23 percent, while Chrysler’s Ram Truck brand reported a 31 percent sales increase.

Shoppers also sought out small cars as they downsized and prioritized fuel efficiency, said Erich Merkle, Ford’s United States sales analyst.

Sales of Ford’s small cars, including the Focus, Fiesta and C-Max, rose 32 percent for the best month since 2000.

The newly redesigned Chevrolet Impala midsize sedan also had strong gains, rising 38 percent, helped by its recent No. 1 ranking in Consumer Reports last week. The ranking was the first time in 20 years that the magazine had given an American sedan the top spot.

“This is the segment I love to watch,” said Michelle Krebs of Edmunds.com. “It is such a vicious battlefield, and an important one, as it is the biggest single segment in the business.”

Chrysler Group said that sales of its Fiat and Jeep brands held steady at 2 percent as the automaker prepared to unveil the new Jeep Cherokee later this year. Dodge sales rose 18 percent, led by the Durango utility vehicle and the Dart sedan, while sales for the Chrysler brand fell 4 percent last month.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/business/us-carmakers-post-strongest-july-sales-since-2006.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Economy News Tagged With: , ,

March Auto Sales Increased 3.4% for Highest Total Since 2007

April 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

DETROIT — Automakers reported on Tuesday that March sales of new cars and trucks were the highest monthly total in five years, providing more evidence of a sustained turnaround in the industry.

According to Autodata, 1.45 million vehicles were sold during the month, a 3.4 percent improvement over last year, as a strengthening housing market and low interest rates spurred consumers and businesses to replace aging models.

It was the best monthly performance since 2007, executives and analysts said, and it reinforced their sales forecasts for the full year at more than 15 million vehicles.

“Even though consumer confidence has been up and down this year, there are ‘wealth effects’ that are making Americans feel comfortable finally buying new cars they’ve been waiting for,” said Lacey Plache, an economist for the auto research site Edmunds.com.

General Motors, the largest American automaker, said it sold 246,000 new vehicles during March, a 6.4 percent increase over the same period last year.

While sales of its biggest brand, Chevrolet, were flat, G.M. said sales of its Cadillac brand increased almost 50 percent and Buick sales rose 37 percent.

G.M. benefited from a steadily growing demand from the construction industry for new pickup trucks. Sales of the Chevrolet Silverado increased 8 percent, and the company expects even better results when it begins delivering a newer-model truck to showrooms over the next few months.

“Trucks have improved in lock step with the housing market,” said Kurt McNeil, head of the company’s sales operations in the United States.

Ford Motor said it sold 236,000 new vehicles during the month, a 5.7 percent improvement over a year earlier and the company’s best monthly performance since May 2007.

The results were driven by the heart of the Ford lineup. Sales of the midsize Fusion sedan topped 30,000 for the first time, and demand for the Escape sport utility vehicle was up more than 27 percent.

Ford also posted a 16 percent gain in sales for its F-series pickup, the best-selling vehicle in America.

“Full-size pickup demand continues to gain momentum, outperforming the industry for the third consecutive month,” said Ken Czubay, Ford’s marketing and sales chief for the United States.

Chrysler sold more than 171,000 vehicles in March. Its 5 percent improvement over a year ago was smaller than in some recent months, and it underscored the company’s need to keep refreshing its showrooms with new models.

The company said sales of its Ram pickup truck increased 25 percent over the previous year, and the new Dodge Dart compact car had its best month since it was introduced last summer.

Chrysler is revamping its cornerstone Jeep brand with a new version of the Cherokee S.U.V. and other models. Analysts said broadening the Jeep lineup was crucial to Chrysler’s chances of returning to the double-digit monthly growth it had in 2012.

“Chrysler’s March sales story is one of old and new,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst at Edmunds.com. “Jeep desperately needs the Cherokee to get back into positive territory.”

The Japanese automakers all reported sales increases in March. Toyota said it sold 205,000 vehicles in the month, a 1 percent gain from a year earlier. While the company more than doubled the sales of its redesigned Avalon sedan, its top-selling Camry declined 11 percent.

Nissan sold 137,000 vehicles, a 1 percent improvement over last year. The all-electric Nissan Leaf, which is now produced at the company’s Tennessee assembly plant, had its best monthly sales of 2,200 vehicles.

Honda posted the strongest results of the Japanese companies, selling 136,000 vehicles for a year-over-year gain of 7.1 percent. Much of the improvement was caused by a 26 percent increase in sales by its Acura brand.

Both Toyota and Honda are back at full strength from lingering inventory problems caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and they are aggressively updating their showrooms with new products.

All the automakers are advertising heavily to bolster spring sales. One of the busiest has been Volkswagen, which is rapidly expanding its American operations.

Volkswagen sold 37,000 vehicles in the month, a 3.1 percent increase from a year ago. The company said that was its best March since 1973, when it was among the few import brands available in the United States. Adding in the company’s Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini brands, it sold 51,226, a 5.8 percent increase.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 2, 2013

A previous version of this article misspelled the surname of G.M.’s United States sales chief. He is Alan Batey, not Batley.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/business/car-sales-keep-up-their-streak.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,

In Car Sales, Good Month for Detroit, Not Japan

July 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Although sales rose 7 percent from a year ago, the seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate fell to 11.5 million, below the level of 11.8 million in May. The selling rate, a closely watched measure of the industry’s health, topped 13 million in February, March and April.

“We continue to believe the economy will recover from the current short-term slowdown into the second half of the year,” Don Johnson, General Motors’ vice president for United States sales operations, said in a conference call. “Some consumers have decided to sit on their hands and delay purchases, but we view this as temporary.”

Sales fell 21 percent at Toyota and Honda — it was the worst June for both companies since 1997 — and 8 percent at Subaru.

Those declines contrasted with gains of 11 percent by G.M., 10 percent by Ford and 30 percent by Chrysler, which outsold Toyota for a second consecutive month. The Detroit carmakers accounted for more than half of sales for the first time since September 2008.

It was the 15th consecutive month that Chrysler posted a year-over-year gain and the company’s best June since 2007. Sales by its Jeep sport utility vehicles were up 74 percent last month, and popular new models introduced since its 2009 bankruptcy helped increase sales in the first half of the year by 20 percent.

Sales of the Toyota Prius fell 61 percent, to 4,340, an average of fewer than four per dealer and the lowest total for a month since September 2004, as the automaker struggled to restore availability after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March. Toyota said it had just 1,400 of the cars left in inventory but that 36,000 were on the way to the United States this summer.

Toyota officials said inventories were improving considerably as many plants returned to normal production levels and that the company would advertise more aggressively in July to ensure customers knew dealers had cars to sell.

“Consumers had the perception that they would simply not be able to find the car they’re looking for, and even if they did that they would have to pay an arm and a leg for it,” Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insight at TrueCar.com, which tracks vehicle pricing and sales. Though availability is better than many shoppers might realize, he said, “it’s not going to be before the fourth quarter that we see a decent inventory mix for the Japanese automakers.”

For the first half of 2011, Toyota’s sales were down 4 percent from those in the period a year earlier, and Honda’s sales were up 3 percent. Chrysler’s sales were 21 percent higher from January through June, G.M.’s sales were up 17 percent and Ford’s rose 9 percent.

As in May, cars made by G.M. and Ford outsold their long-dominant rivals at Toyota and Honda. The Chevrolet Cruze, a compact car introduced by G.M. last year, was the nation’s top-selling car in June. G.M. and Ford executives said buying patterns shifted toward larger vehicles later in the month as gas prices dropped in much of the country.

Toyota responded to its inventory shortages by pulling many discounts, but it introduced new deals in June after traffic at dealerships slowed sharply.

“Things actually were going along pretty well in March and April, and the shortage hit us badly,” said Earl Stewart, owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Fla.

His dealership sold 88 Prius cars in March but only 12 in June before running out. Mr. Stewart said his new-car department was profitable early in the year but lost money in May and June, as sales went from an average of 265 a month to about 140 in May and then 180 last month.

“They put the incentives back on, but you can’t un-ring a bell,” Mr. Stewart said. “The message got out to a lot of people. It had a psychological negative impact on the Toyota buyer.”

To keep shoppers from sitting on the sidelines — or worse, choosing a competitor’s readily available vehicle — Toyota and Honda have begun offering incentives to people who order a car even if it does not arrive at the dealership for several months. Normally, incentives are available only on vehicles that are in stock or delivered in the same month.

“Fortunately for them, Honda and Toyota customers are loyal to their brands and they’ve likely deferred their new-car purchases until inventory is available,” said Jessica Caldwell, director of industry analysis at Edmunds.com, a Web site that provides car-buying information to consumers.

Toyota increased incentives by 31 percent from May, though the level remained about $500 a vehicle below the industry average of $2,165, Edmunds.com reported.

Tight supplies of Japanese vehicles have helped push up prices across the industry by giving other carmakers less motivation to offer big discounts. Prices for small cars have risen the most, given the increased demand for fuel efficiency.

The industry’s average transaction price in June rose 2.9 percent from a year ago, to $30,009, topping $30,000 for the first time, according to TrueCar.com.

Analysts said they expected sales to remain somewhat sluggish through much of the summer but pick up later in the year.

“Incentive levels $500 below the first-quarter average and depleted vehicle inventory have added to the pressure as the month progressed,” said Jeff Schuster, the executive director of global forecasting for the research firm J. D. Power Associates. “However, the fundamentals remain in place for a marked return to the recovery pace set in the first four months of the year.”

Some automakers also said sales were hurt on Thursday — the last day of a month often accounts for considerable volume as dealers try to bolster their results — after California enacted a cut in its sales and vehicle taxes, effective Friday. The cuts save the buyer of a $25,000 car more than $350.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4018f9dbcf62f3948626dfecec586262

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,