Speaking of April sales, American automakers and industry watchers are expecting a jump of nearly Chinese proportions when April sales will be announced on Monday. Easy: We are comparing with an April of 2009, when everybody assumed we’ll never buy a car again.
A Thomson Reuters poll of 12 economists sees U.S. April auto sales to rise more than 20 percent for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 11.4 million units. In April 2009, SAAR stood at 9.3 million.
Bloomberg goes out on a limb and predicts that Chrysler may post a 15 percent plus, reflecting its biggest monthly gain since 2005.
The consensus of analysts polled by Bloomberg agrees with the Reuters poll. Bloomberg’s oracles predict a whopping 34 percent rise for Toyota, a jump of 28 percent for Ford, and a tepid 7.2 percent increase for GM.
Honda is predicted to be up 15 percent, Nissan is presaged to skrocket by 57 percent. Hyundai may increase 35 percent.
However, the annualized sales rate is a far cry from the 16m before the recession, a number that may not be reached anytime soon.
Nissans been doing well for a while now…they may pass up Honda by the end of the year.
Nissan’s sales fell off a cliff last year and are expected to be down hugely over last month.
Nissan has a large product portfolio of second and third tier product. At some point Hyundai should pass Nissan in the US.
“Nissan has a large product portfolio of second and third tier product. At some point Hyundai should pass Nissan in the US.”
Your over exaggerating.
Nissan leads Hyundai by a wide margin. IF Hyundai does pass Nissan it won’t be in the short term.
Haha I own Nissan stocks as a disclaimer. Nissan got raped during the recession. So any 50% increase ain’t much but I trust Carlos Ghosn four years ago and he’s betting it big on EV.
I don’t think they’ll pass Honda, but if they are, it’s because of Honda latest styling, well mostly Acura’s weird hate it or love it grills.
That and because of Toyota’s current situation, to me, gave Nissan and Honda some room to catch up in sales term.
“Nissan has a large product portfolio of second and third tier product. At some point Hyundai s hould pass Nissan in the US.”
They’re fine where they stand. Hyundai isn’t going pass Nissan anything in the near future. And if they do they will be outrun in the long run anyway. Hyundai’s company strategy is alright at most, let’s offer decent engines,good style, and cheap pricing. Nissan got better technologies, while theirs styling are questionable at time (I actually like the Juke), they’re willing to place bets and take risks. Hyundai is just playing catch up for the existing market. Nissan is trying to find new markets, EV, commercial trucks, and big Trucks (which they tried and fail).
I will acknowledge Hyundai’s technology when they have built something that demonstrate it (like the GTR) or when they win Ward’s best engine for 11th straight or so (VQ baby).
Honda didn’t collapse like others did last year.
As for sequential, Nissan collapsed from March – down hugely from 95,000 last month, by about 1/3 to about 65,000.
Honda is up sequentially, to 113 from 108,000. Honda has just about double Nissan share.
Nissan has second and third tier product??
News to me. Please explain.
Really? Ever since I started driving an Altima, I have noticed how many are on the road. Tight, quiet, solid, good dynamics…GM should have such a “second tier”…or Hyundai for that matter…yeah the CVT sucks, but is that due to design or due to programming to max out mileage? Seems that it dives for the highest ratio as soon as you lift off the gas, even slightly. However, for a commuter, I’ll put up with that if it keeps on delivering 34 MPG in that horrible drive to work…
Nissan has a huge product portfolio with no class leaders. Nissan products just aren’t on the radar.
Predictions, predictions… Who really needs this?
Obviously, Bloomberg et.al, as well as the rating agencies, are the new augurs. According to Wikipedia, their “main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of the birds (whether they are flying in groups/alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of birds they are), known as “taking the auspices.””
Crappy results, now and then, based on a simple business model: “Acts of God”, if the predictions don’t come true. Nobody really cares. In the meantime, you can get rich by adding some curls and figures to the obvious.
It’s TTAC’s excuse to use a gratuitous cheesecake bathing beauty shot of a buxom, nubile….. hey wait a minute. Ewwwww.
Yes. That: acts of God.
Seriously? Someone is actually earning a living projecting numbers 2 days in advance? We can’t just wait until Monday and find out what the numbers actually are?
What do you think GM’s corporate planning department was doing until the recent shakeup? Oh well, I won’t miss it.
I can report form the “real” world of auto sales that here in the northeastern area of northern New York and New England that finding any of Ford’s best sellers like Fusion, Focus, Escape and Taurus available for sale is tough, excluding Fusion Hybrid. F-150 not so much. Super Duty’s are finding homes at a rapid rate due the incentives.
If you want to verify, call any Ford dealer in this area and try to find an sub $23,000.00 Fusion.
I’ll attest to the same thing happening in Florida. Base model Escapes and Fusions are nearly impossible to find, and mid-level models aren’t much easier.
Escape Hybrids are probably the hardest vehicle for a Ford dealer to get on the lot here at the moment, we have a list of a dozen people for the next one we get in.
F-150s are selling well as always, but inventory is plentiful, so there are still enough to go around, same with Super Duties.
Mustang sales have fallen off a cliff – everyone is waiting for the 2011 models or for incentives to get better on 2010 models.
Well now,
Here in the ‘real-world’ of the Midwest (where all the D3 loyalist are…) the story is a bit different…
Any random dealer will give 4-7K off 2010 MSRP Mustang, 7-12K off MSRP F-Series, and 4-5K off MSRP Focii. And that’s just a starting point for negotiations. The lots are full of them. I drove by hundreds yesterday and only passed 2 ‘auto rows’.
http://adzone.stltoday.com/ROP/ads.aspx?advid=26601&adid=9245072&cat=6773
Not sure what is wrong with distribution in the NE, but if you need a Focus, I’ll getcha a hundred. Tomorrow. Have the check ready.
I think what we’re seeing is a demographic flip in brand preferences within the U.S. Japanese and Korean cars becoming popular in the South, reflecting the transplant manufacturing and anti union/bailout views, and Ford (and some GM) vehicles becoming popular in the Northeast.
I can’t speak for the West Coast.
Whoa. Jodie Foster has not aged well.
The sales number difference between Nissan and Hyundai in USA isn’t that much.
In fact, in 4/1/2009. Hyundai/Kia sold 67,493 units versus Nissan/Infiniti sold 66,634 units.
One problem I see with the Nissan line is the use of CVT Type of Transmissions, right now the Jury is out on them but after chatting with several people in the Transmission field, I am of the opinion that this will be a large problem once they go in trouble, you can’t fix them, you have to replace them, at what cost? Will the cost turn people off Nissans?
@caljn
I think it’s an overstatement, but the Titan and the Sentra are certainly second tier.
I wonder if some brilliant mechanic will come up with a good way to replace defunct CVT’s with regular automatic trannies or even 5- or 6-speed manuals. I’d think there would be a market.
I feel sorry for the view that poor dog just got. Even getting run over by that Dodge Caliber would be preferable.
If sales are as good as expected it will be another indicator that economic recovery is slowly but surely coming.
Two of my family members traded their just-out-of-warranty GM vehicles on Nissans last month, one for a Pathfinder the other and a Maxima.
Both of them bought in 08′ before GM went belly up and became Government Motors. Ever since BK, they have nothing good to say about the failed-now-government entity in which they supported back then.
Major, Major buyers remorse.
GM has lost two more customers for good.