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Sales volume grew slowly in July, as economic uncertainty and supply interruptions continued to foil a full turnaround in US sales volume. On the other hand, TrueCar reports that the consumers that did buy cars spent record amounts on average, as transaction prices soared to their highest levels in history and incentives fell. According to our developing table, the Detroit automakers are coming through July ahead of their year-ago numbers, but the Japanese automakers (who are still releasing their numbers) are expected to take a bit of punishment as they struggle to recover from the industry-crippling tsunami. Hit the jump for a full table of July sales results (developing).
| Automaker | July 2011 | July 2010 | Pct. chng. | 7 month 2011 |
7 month 2010 |
Pct. chng. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW division | 21,409 | 19,064 | 12% | 135,114 | 119,696 | 13% |
| Mini | 4,711 | 4,326 | 9% | 34,527 | 25,279 | 37% |
| Rolls-Royce | 44 | 43 | 2% | 308 | 297 | 4% |
| BMW Group | 26,164 | 23,433 | 12% | 169,949 | 145,272 | 17% |
| Chrysler Division | 15,427 | 14,692 | 5% | 111,495 | 122,818 | –9% |
| Dodge | 33,653 | 30,916 | 9% | 263,551 | 231,383 | 14% |
| Dodge/Ram | 54,870 | 52,155 | 5% | 404,866 | 344,477 | 18% |
| Fiat | 3,038 | – | –% | 7,982 | – | –% |
| Jeep | 38,691 | 26,466 | 46% | 227,615 | 153,237 | 49% |
| Ram | 21,217 | 21,239 | 0% | 141,315 | 113,094 | 25% |
| Chrysler Group LLC | 112,026 | 93,313 | 20% | 751,958 | 620,532 | 21% |
| Maybach | 4 | 5 | –20% | 32 | 38 | –16% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 20,738 | 18,049 | 15% | 138,759 | 125,022 | 11% |
| Smart USA | 327 | 560 | –42% | 2,883 | 3,909 | –26% |
| Daimler AG | 21,069 | 18,614 | 13% | 141,674 | 128,969 | 10% |
| Ford division | 172,501 | 153,400 | 13% | 1,199,986 | 1,011,854 | 19% |
| Ford/Lincoln/Mercury | 180,315 | 165,889 | 9% | 1,250,051 | 1,119,035 | 12% |
| Lincoln | 7,814 | 5,586 | 40% | 49,817 | 49,348 | 1% |
| Mercury | – | 6,903 | –100% | 248 | 57,833 | –100% |
| Volvo | – | 4,319 | –100% | – | 32,525 | –100% |
| Ford Motor Co. | 180,315 | 170,208 | 6% | 1,250,051 | 1,151,560 | 9% |
| Buick | 16,873 | 16,799 | 0% | 110,472 | 86,831 | 27% |
| Cadillac | 11,119 | 14,919 | –26% | 87,241 | 79,704 | 10% |
| Chevrolet | 149,005 | 139,858 | 7% | 1,053,543 | 920,864 | 14% |
| GMC | 37,918 | 27,766 | 37% | 225,269 | 178,600 | 26% |
| Hummer | – | 210 | –100% | – | 3,139 | –100% |
| Pontiac | – | 20 | –100% | – | 947 | –100% |
| Saab | – | – | –% | – | 608 | –100% |
| Saturn | – | 30 | –100% | – | 6,510 | –100% |
| General Motors | 214,915 | 199,602 | 8% | 1,476,525 | 1,277,203 | 16% |
| Acura | 9,402 | 13,017 | –28% | 70,082 | 74,134 | –6% |
| Honda Division | 71,100 | 99,420 | –29% | 617,862 | 632,212 | –2% |
| Honda (American) | 80,502 | 112,437 | –28% | 687,944 | 706,346 | –3% |
| Hyundai division | 59,561 | 54,106 | 10% | 382,358 | 309,888 | 23% |
| Kia | 45,504 | 35,419 | 29% | 290,608 | 205,488 | 41% |
| Hyundai Group | 105,065 | 89,525 | 17% | 672,966 | 515,376 | 31% |
| Jaguar | 984 | 1,516 | –35% | 7,394 | 7,367 | 0% |
| Land Rover | 2,811 | 2,292 | 23% | 20,103 | 17,256 | 17% |
| Jaguar Land Rover | 3,795 | 3,808 | 0% | 27,497 | 24,623 | 12% |
| Maserati | 199 | 156 | 28% | 1,296 | 1,068 | 21% |
| Mazda | 20,783 | 20,732 | 0% | 143,162 | 136,451 | 5% |
| Mitsubishi | 7,972 | 5,648 | 41% | 52,087 | 32,138 | 62% |
| Infiniti | 7,410 | 9,764 | –24% | 54,678 | 57,064 | –4% |
| Nissan Division | 77,191 | 72,573 | 6% | 534,896 | 465,605 | 15% |
| Nissan | 84,601 | 82,337 | 3% | 589,574 | 522,669 | 13% |
| Porsche | 2,768 | 2,703 | 2% | 18,310 | 13,687 | 34% |
| Saab Cars North America‡ | 384 | 471 | –19% | 3,855 | 1,209 | 219% |
| Subaru | 21,730 | 23,983 | –9% | 153,779 | 149,943 | 3% |
| Suzuki | 2,447 | 1,952 | 25% | 15,849 | 13,501 | 17% |
| Lexus | 14,539 | 18,595 | –22% | 102,549 | 126,025 | –19% |
| Scion | 3,499 | 4,653 | –25% | 30,120 | 25,660 | 17% |
| Toyota division | 112,764 | 145,976 | –23% | 810,921 | 864,081 | –6% |
| Toyota/Scion | 116,263 | 150,629 | –23% | 841,041 | 889,741 | –6% |
| Toyota | 130,802 | 169,224 | –23% | 943,590 | 1,015,766 | –7% |
| Audi | 9,146 | 7,817 | 17% | 65,055 | 56,257 | 16% |
| Bentley | 142 | 56 | 154% | 985 | 744 | 32% |
| VW division | 29,066 | 23,880 | 22% | 183,191 | 149,892 | 22% |
| Volkswagen | 38,354 | 31,753 | 21% | 249,231 | 206,893 | 21% |
| Volvo Cars North America | 5,595 | – | –% | 41,898 | – | –% |
| Other (estimate) | 244 | 241 | 1% | 1,708 | 1,686 | 1% |
| TOTAL | 1,059,730 | 1,050,140 | 1% | 7,392,903 | 6,664,892 | 11% |
17 Comments on “July Sales: Volume Slows, Transaction Prices Soar...”
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So are the rising transaction prices a result of higher used car prices? Basically it’s not so hard to get someone to pay retail for a new car when the used ones are so expensive.
I just traded my 09 Highlander. It was a base FWD model with 43K miles. I acquired an 11 Highlander, also a base with FWD. Before taxes and plates, I added $5300.00. How can you beat that.
Higher transaction prices are to be expected when some vehicles are in short supply due to Japan’s problems.
All in all, July looks pretty much as one would expect.
Chrysler group is showing some real signs of life.
Nissan is doing something right to pull out a small gain when Honda is sucking wind.
Higher late model used car values mean higher trade in values for people like jj99. Transaction prices as reported show the price of the new vehicle, but say nothing about trade-in values. New car buyers who are trading in vehicles less than five years old are generally much more focused on the “how much plus my old vehicle” than they are on the price of the new vehicle per se.
Chrysler’s strength seems to be mainly with Jeep, the other divisions were level or grew slowly.
I had read on TTAC that Nissan was not as badly affected by the tsunami due to the location of their Japanese factories, so that explains why they are doing better.
Hyundai #s are out:
59,561 up 10% YOY
38% sold get 40 MPH (HWY of course)
10% were fleet sales down to 9% for the YTD
3500 Genesis sold (no breakdown sedan/coupe)
302 Equus
What happened to the Volvo numbers? Hopefully not the same fate as the 0’s from Hummer, Pontiac, and Saturn.
The Camry is back on top.
Ford sold more F-150’s in July than Toyota sold Tundra’s all year.
Lacrosse + Regal outsold COMBINED sales of ES, IS, GS, LS, HS, CT, SC, LFA, GX and LX!
Acadia outsold every 3 row crossover there is except the Traverse which outsold the Acadia by 4000 Units!
Escape sold more units than Accord, Corolla, Civic, Fusion, Malibu, Altima, Focus and Sonata
Compact Segment
Cruze: 24,648
Corrolla: 17,577
Jetta/golf: 15,357
Elantra: 15,181
focus: 14,889
Civic: 14,006
The Focus has been having a problem with a dashboard component, and judging by that sales drop from last month it must be pretty serious.
Interesting, so even if the Cruze has something like 30-40% fleet sales (some one last month on here made an estimate) it’s retail sales would still make it 1st. That is an accomplishment since the Elantra and Jetta are not production limited.
Actually, the Focus most certainly is production-limited at the moment; see my above post.
Interesting, so even if the Cruze has something like 30-40% fleet sales (some one last month on here made an estimate) it’s retail sales would still make it 1st.
That was my guesstimate. (Again, it would be nice if GM would just spell it out.)
GM overall fleet sales for July 2011 were 26%. I would expect that the Cruze figures for the month would be about the same or a bit higher than that. But even so, that would be a pretty impressive showing for retail.
Sv – I edited my original post before seeing your response. Edmunds made the same point you did about limited Focus supply, so I corrected my comment. PCH – I couldn`t remember who made the estimate last month, thanks. Obviously the Cruze is a retail success – which bodes well for the future which hopefully includes a hatchback along with the planned diesel.
Yes, we could have sold many more Foci if we’d had them this month. We’ve had a number of customers place factory orders because whatever they want just isn’t available. Even before the component shortage the 2012 Focus had one of the lowest ‘average days on lot’ numbers, so there just wasn’t any excess inventory to cushion the production problem.
What really surprises me are the GM Lambda numbers. They’re good vehicles, and have been popular, but the sales on both the Acadia and Traverse shot up like rockets this month. I don’t know if it’s due to a new lease deal, new incentives, fleet sales, or just people suddenly having a huge desire to own a GM 7 passenger CUV, but the sales increases were absolutely huge both month to month and year to year.
While it’s a little early to be slapping each other on the back, it does seem that Ford and GM might (finally) have figured out how to build and sell a decent small car to rival the Japanese. Yeah, the Cruze and Focus cost more than the models they replaced, but it looks like US small car buyers are saying the price increase was worth it. With typical discounts to undercut the prices of what used to be the best-in-class competition, consumers are ponying up their dough for the domestics.
The timing is even better with the new Civic being lambasted in the reviews (although the “let’s see how cheap we can make it” Jetta seems to be selling okay). It remains to be seen how Toyota responds with the next Corolla but, chances are, it won’t be any better than the Civic since Toyota and Honda generally just compete against each other and ignore the Americans. At least that’s what they did in the past.
Focuses are in absurdly thin supply for sure. I see them on the road with regularity now, but passing by dealerships around Houston the last few weeks, I’ve seen a total of two Focuses on the lot – and at just one of the dealerships. I can’t spot them at any of the rest. They could be parked out back (there’s an annoying predilection for Ford dealers here to display only trucks out front, even if it’s the same old F-150 and there’s a new Fiesta or Focus out) but there can’t be many of them.
Nullo – I agree the Lambda numbers were interesting. I recall that this project back in 2007 was over budget. Obviously though it paid for them to do it right since they have left the cars pretty much alone for 5 years (so no redevelopment cost) and they continue to sell well and have good transaction prices.
The human horde in my part of town are more apt to steal a vehicle than buy one.
But the shantys are cheap and property taxes low.