Find Reviews by Make:
Most of the smaller makers reported October sales yesterday as the nation went to go vote. The big ones decided to wait until today: The Detroit 3, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.
Yesterday’s numbers looked good. Hyundai-Kia, Subaru, Volkswagen and others reported sharp gains for October. Today, a mixed bag. Ford up solidly. Chrysler up 37 percent. GM up a meek 4 percent. Toyota down a weak 4 percent. GM can find solace in the fact that they did beat the estimates. All analysts polled by Bloomberg that ventured a guess had predicted a loss for GM.
The market is turning the corner, albeit slower than many hope, says Automotive News.
Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at TrueCar, says it’s better that way: “Without crazy incentive spending, you’re not going to get to a 14 million annual sales rate anytime soon. But if automakers are able to make money with sub-12 million sales, perhaps this is a healthier way to recover.”
Perhaps.
U.S. Light Vehicles Sales, October 2010
| Automaker | Oct. 2010 | Oct. 2009 | Pct. chng. | 10 month 2010 |
10 month 2009 |
Pct. chng. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW Group | 23,248 | 20,646 | 13% | 215,534 | 200,108 | 8% |
| Chrysler Group LLC | 90,137 | 65,803 | 37% | 910,357 | 781,319 | 17% |
| Daimler AG | 19,454 | 18,869 | 3% | 189,687 | 166,832 | 14% |
| Ford Motor Co. | 157,650 | 136,583 | 15% | 1,626,912 | 1,370,687 | 19% |
| General Motors | 183,543 | 176,632 | 4% | 1,818,882 | 1,713,535 | 6% |
| Honda (American) | 98,811 | 85,502 | 16% | 1,011,247 | 969,638 | 4% |
| Hyundai Group | 73,855 | 53,495 | 38% | 751,926 | 634,282 | 19% |
| Isuzu | – | – | -% | – | 165 | -100% |
| Jaguar Land Rover | 4,253 | 3,042 | 40% | 36,290 | 30,101 | 21% |
| Maserati | 196 | 110 | 78% | 1,551 | 1,058 | 47% |
| Mazda | 18,013 | 15,068 | 20% | 192,783 | 175,257 | 10% |
| Mitsubishi | 5,111 | 3,867 | 32% | 46,503 | 46,706 | 0% |
| Nissan | 69,773 | 60,115 | 16% | 743,474 | 640,411 | 16% |
| Porsche | 2,647 | 1,642 | 61% | 20,337 | 15,952 | 28% |
| Saab Cars North America | 741 | – | -% | 3,366 | – | -% |
| Subaru | 22,720 | 18,169 | 25% | 216,334 | 176,590 | 23% |
| Suzuki | 2,043 | 1,745 | 17% | 19,015 | 35,271 | -46% |
| Toyota | 145,474 | 152,165 | -4% | 1,456,790 | 1,448,587 | 1% |
| Volkswagen | 28,332 | 24,472 | 16% | 295,566 | 244,764 | 21% |
| Volvo Cars North America | 3,996 | – | -% | 12,589 | – | -% |
| Other (estimate) | 294 | 308 | -5% | 2,940 | 3,064 | -4% |
| TOTAL | 950,291 | 838,233 | 13% | 9,572,083 | 8,654,327 | 11% |
Data courtesy Automotive News [sub]
6 Comments on “October Sales: Looking Good So Far...”
Read all comments
Wow, must have been a good month. Even Suzuki had a pick up in October.
“Looking good” is an appropriate title, as I have never seen a car salesperson who looks as good as the one in the photo. Maserati picking up some share it seems.
Are those Saturns? I didn’t think there were that many left….
Surely.
Automotive News says: GM “sold 15,089 Saab, Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac models in October 2009; last month, just 367 units of those brands were sold.”
“Without crazy incentive spending, you’re not going to get to a 14 million annual sales rate anytime soon. But if automakers are able to make money with sub-12 million sales, perhaps this is a healthier way to recover.”
Let’s keep it that way… if people can’t afford to buy a new car because money is tight, trimming a few percent off the total price isn’t going to make things all better. People may temporarily feel good about themselves as a result inhaling new car smell chemicals, but they’re just falling down a deeper debt chasm when they could instead buy a great used car for a fraction of the price.
Hyundai / Kia is slowly catching Honda, and the way Honda’s been focusing on very low volume hybrids and other non automotive pet projects while ignoring their bread and butter cars it won’t be long before they are outsold. In 2011 Hyundai will release the Veloster which is supposed to get similar mileage than the CR-Z all without a costly, heavy, complicated drivetrain and seat up to 4 people – and cost less. Most automakers have gone to Direct Injection which provides much better mileage and Honda missed out on this completely except in their diesel engines. Soon other automakers are going to have it as standard and also more diesel options. Giving us better ICE engines with hybrid like mileage – all at a much lower cost.