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Today, we were following Automotive News [sub] as they were filling their developing table of March 2010 sales. With all precincts having reported, the final number is +24 percent. But remember: We are comparing with the worst of carmageddon. At least, it looks like we are slowly turning the corner. However, the Chinese are way ahead of US. Data after the jump …
| Automaker | March 2010 | March 2009 | Pct. chng. | 3 month 2010 |
3 month 2009 |
Pct. chng. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW Group | 21,696 | 21,152 | 3% | 55,129 | 51,325 | 7% |
| Chrysler Group LLC | 92,623 | 101,001 | -8% | 234,215 | 247,208 | -5% |
| Daimler AG | 20,711 | 17,362 | 19% | 51,996 | 45,213 | 15% |
| Ford Motor Co. | 183,425 | 131,102 | 40% | 441,708 | 323,193 | 37% |
| General Motors | 188,011 | 155,334 | 21% | 475,861 | 409,702 | 16% |
| Honda (American) | 108,262 | 88,379 | 22% | 256,412 | 230,985 | 11% |
| Hyundai Group | 77,524 | 65,445 | 18% | 188,205 | 164,747 | 14% |
| Isuzu | – | – | -% | – | 165 | -100% |
| Jaguar Land Rover | 3,709 | 3,422 | 8% | 9,091 | 8,596 | 6% |
| Maserati | 189 | 119 | 59% | 394 | 274 | 44% |
| Mazda | 23,193 | 21,974 | 6% | 55,941 | 53,795 | 4% |
| Mitsubishi | 5,434 | 4,620 | 18% | 13,623 | 13,834 | -2% |
| Nissan | 95,468 | 66,634 | 43% | 228,229 | 174,767 | 31% |
| Porsche | 1,905 | 1,749 | 9% | 5,222 | 4,925 | 6% |
| Saab Spyker |
133 | – | -% | 133 | – | -% |
| Subaru | 23,785 | 16,249 | 46% | 57,494 | 41,532 | 38% |
| Suzuki | 2,246 | 7,981 | -72% | 5,661 | 15,131 | -63% |
| Toyota | 186,863 | 132,801 | 41% | 385,686 | 359,670 | 7% |
| VW | 30,868 | 22,254 | 39% | 79,909 | 58,195 | 37% |
| Other (estimate) | 294 | 306 | -4% | 882 | 918 | -4% |
| TOTAL | 1,066,339 | 857,884 | 24% | 2,545,791 | 2,204,175 | 15% |
16 Comments on “US New Car Sales March 2010: Up 24 Percent...”
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Who cares about the Chinese being ahead of us?
We are always going to be behind from now
Chrysler now needs to sell approximately 96,198 vehicles every month for the rest of the year to meet Marchionne’s goal of 1.1 million. It’ll be a nailbiter…
No nail-biting necessary. It’s not gonna happen for Chrysler.
Lets not be foolish Rob, they are pulling these not so bad results with nothing new… We’ve got a New Grand Cherokee being produced in about a months time, as well as new Charger and 300 at the end of the year. With the GC alone, I am sure they can pull out a couple thousand more sales.
I beg to differ, roundel, I don’t think there’s anything foolish about it.
The GC won’t come online at dealerships until, at the very earliest, late-May — and won’t have a significant number of saleable units available until mid-summer. If current sales trends continue, by that time Chrysler will need over 100,000 units per month to break even… and that’s not going to happen.
Any help Chrysler may get from the revamped Sebring and Avenger will be too little, too late. I’s not like there’s a huge, pent-up demand out there for a Chrysler midsize sedan, and rental fleets can only buy so many. The 300/Charger aren’t expected until year-end. What will the break-even point be by then? 150K? 200?
I think we need to lose one domestically-branded automaker, for the other two to have a fighting chance against the Asian wave. Frankly, I want that to be GM — but Chrysler is the odds-on favorite right now.
At current face value it would seem GM of course has the one up on Chrysler.
But do we know what’s in GM’s pipeline. Their wow products are out right now, and while they are certianly competent vehicles, they aren’t lighting the charts on fire. Whats next?
The Grand Cherokee and in turn the Jeep name has strong brand equity, and an all new version that seems to address the quality issues as of late could be a hit.
Sure the Sebring Refresh and the new LX cars might not be highly anticipated in the market, but I think its a wait and see if these cars deliver.
I still think that too many people are selling Sergio short, while Fiat may still have some issues, he certainly was able to right the ship. He’s got an automotive head on his sholdurs and unlike Cerberus knows how to run an auto company. We need to give it time to see if the efforts he puts in pays off.
Will he meet his goal, thats doubtful… is it possible? Not out of the question.
To be so certain however… is foolish. Thats my opinion…
I’d bet dollars to donuts that the Chinese numbers are ahead of Germany, too.
Back to the North American market, I’m relieved to see that the monthly numbers finally turning a corner. Last year was the pits.
GO CHRYSLER! (he he he)
Is this saying there were more Maseratis sold than Saabs? Really? Am I reading this wrong? And doesn’t Maser technically belong in the same bucket as Chrysler now since they’re both owned by Fiat?
Anyway, what Ford’s done is truly amazing. As someone who’s know the Big 3 as crap-factories my entire life, I think Ford might be building a whole new generation of loyal customers. No bailouts helps, but leadership in hybrids (among US automakers at least) and in-car entertainment like Sync is even more important, IMO.
But remember: We are comparing with the worst of carmageddon.
Probably the most important sentence of this story. The “growth” being seen now is really just a partial recovery from last year, or worse, a dead-cat bounce before things get nasty again. You’ve gotta wonder if all the incentives and cash-for-clunkers merely sucked the next 3 years’ worth of demand out of the market.
You’ve gotta wonder if all the incentives and cash-for-clunkers merely sucked the next 3 years’ worth of demand out of the market.
It’s didn’t pull that much demand forward and it’s not like cars don’t continue to age, wear and break down with each passing day.
It’s didn’t pull that much demand forward and it’s not like cars don’t continue to age, wear and break down with each passing day.
It pulled some demand forward from several months, and it’s not like most new car buyers can’t put off a car purchase for months or even years, even if cars do continue to age.
I don’t see Smart listed here but on Autoblog I saw that they sold 677 vehicles in March 2010 vs. 1746 in March 2009. How do they survive like that? Are they going to end up as some weird social experiment? One of my coworkers owns one and he’s pretty happy with it, but is it just so far removed from mainstream American market vehicles that it will just peter out and die after a couple years of availability?
I guess being a 2-seater puts in a niche, then considering its’ lack of sporting intent further pushed it into that niche.
I’m beyond happy with mine.
But lets remember Americans have a very short attention span. The interest was high when gas prices were high. I think that interest will reignite once we gain some momentum in the economy and in turn raise engergy prices.
I’m just curious if Smart has the persistence to stick it out until (if?) things turn around for them. There’s a Smart dealer less than a mile from my office and that place is a ghost town.
Smarts, along with the huge volume of Maybachs, are included in the Daimler number. Just like Audi is included in the VW stats ….