Honda’s sales bounced 22 percent, as the normally incentive-adverse firm broke out financing, cashback and lease deals to keep up with Toyota and GM’s incentive war. Accord and Civic were 23 and 4 percent, with 29,120 and 22,463 units respectively. Odyssey, Pilot and CR-V all broke the 10k mark, with Pilot growing sales the most (48 percent). Fit was down slightly from last March’s recession-fueled sales, managing only 4,670 units. The Insight sold a pathetic 1,652 units.
Toyota was determined to get the momentum back in its sales with incentives, and it did the trick. Sales jumped 41% over last year. Both the Toyota brand and Lexus shared the gain equally: Toyota brand up 41%; Lexus up 42%. Those are raw unadjusted numbers, as TTAC prefers. Until I get my calculator humming, the highlights here are adjusted for DSR, which means they are lower than the raw ones: Camry: +35%; Corolla: +28%; Prius: +27%; Venza: +36%; Rav4: +108%; Highlander: +113%; 4Runner: +140%. Just like the good old days!
Lexus’ ES 350 was up 15%; the RX up 26%. Full chart after the jump: Read More >
Chrysler managed to buck the up market very successfully in March. And it’s missing its stated and essential sales targets. With 92k units sold in March, Marchionnes’ 1.1 million goal for 2010 is slipping further from reach by the month. The lowlights: HD Ram trucks are up 20%! Jeep eked out a 3% rise. Challenger is up 50%. And the Sebring is crawling back from the abyss with a 69% spike. Minivans are split: T&C up 30%; Caravan down 32%. The all-important Ram pickups are still sagging, down 8% in March, and -18% YTD. The full ugly details after the jump: Read More >
Hyundai and KIA combined for an 18 percent sales increase last month, moving 77,524 units between the two brands. Hyundai saw less dramatic increases, up “only” 15.4 percent over last March. Accent (4,233) and Elantra (8,225) sales were weak compared to last March’s recession fever, but big jumps in Sonata (18,935), Santa Fe (9,548) and Tucson (3,084) volumes kept the momentum going. Sorento (9,156) and Soul (5,106) led KIA’s volume, with Forte (4,830) softening and Optima (3,633) actually gaining. Meanwhile, the fact that other brands were binging on incentives, trying to meet the Koreans on value, means this performance is especially impressive. At least it will be when we have March’s incentive numbers. Full sales numbers after the jump.
March is shaping up to be the biggest month in car sales since Cash for Clunkers ended, and Ford isn’t being left behind [official release in PDF format here]. The firm’s sales rose 43 percent last month, matching February’s performance and setting another record for sales since 1984. Ford brand sales led the way with a 45.6 percent increase, while Lincoln climbed 18.9 percent and Mercury rose 26.2 percent. Focus hit 19,500 units, a 57.5 percent increase, while Fusion sales grew 79 percent to 22,773 units, an all-time record for the nameplate. Escape flirted with the 20k mark as well at 19,182, while F-Series hit 42,514, a 30 percent increase. Explorer even saw a 78 percent bump to 5,907, and a 53 percent bump in fleet sales sent over 10,000 Econolines out the door. Lincoln sold 450 more MKZs than it did last March, otherwise only the Town Car and Navigator were up (modestly). Milan carried the Mercury brand, up 71 percent to 3,897 units. Grand Marquis and Mariner sold 3,532 and 2,482 respectively. Though Ford had a great month sales-wise, its luxury brand situation continues to be one hot, steaming mess.
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 … Read More >
With the industry locked in the first incentive war of 2010, analysts have been predicting big sales numbers for March (especially in comparison with March 2009’s weak sales), and GM did not disappoint [sales spreadsheet available here in XLS format]. The General got big numbers out of its newest models [press release here], with the Buick LaCross selling over 6k units, the Cadillac SRX topping 4k, Camaro coming up just shy of 9k units and Equinox moving 12,805. By brand, Buick improved its sales by nearly 76 percent over February 2009, Cadillac bucked its underperformance, ending up 41.8 percent, Chevy added 40 percent and GMC was up 45 percent.
Germany and Japan have had a bit of a love hate relationship in the automobile world. VW-Suzuki (love), Daimler-Mitsubishi (hate), Volkswagen-Toyota (hate), Bertel and Tomoko (love). Now, here comes another hate relationship. Lexus is the 900lb silverback in the US car market. It’s Lexus’ biggest market and they do a lot to protect it. But now, some Bavarian yokels from Munich want a piece of that American pie (any sexist jokes will result in a ban … or at the very least, an icy glare from me). Read More >
Speaking of car sales in the Far East, the whisper number for China points to another solid month when March sales in the world’s largest car market will be announced next week.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters are expecting a 30-40 percent rise in sales of passenger vehicles for March. Read More >
Today is a big day. It’s April Fools Day. March numbers of U.S. auto sales will come out (we’ll get to that later.) Also, it is the beginning of one of the many Japanese oddities, called the fiscal year. The Japanese fiscal year spans from April 1 in the current year to March 31 in the next. So as far as the Japanese fiscal year is concerned, today is New Year! And it’s time to look back at Japanese auto sales. For the first time in what seemed to be an eternity, we can look back at Japanese auto sales without tears in our eyes. Or with gnashing teeth, depending on which side we’re on: Sales are up! Honto? Read More >
An RL Polk study, reported in the Detroit Free Press, reveals that Americans scrapped 1.2m more vehicles than they bought in the 15 months ending in September 2009. 14.8m vehicles were scrapped in that time period, compared to 13.6 new registrations, suggesting that new car sales could be heading towards an upswing. And with an average fleet age of 10.2 years (the highest in 14 years), common sense seems to indicate that the rebound should happen soon. Polk VP Lonnie Miller explains:
It foreshadows what may be pentup demand. The assumption is that those vehicles have to be replaced.
But is it that simple? Even Miller admits that a number of factors might cause scrappage to exceed new registration for the immediate future.
While others have a bit prematurely called for a Toyota death-watch, we’ve been following the story of comeback kid Toyota for a while. In Japan, ToMoCo’s production, domestic sales, and exports are solidly up. In the U.S.A., where Toyota had taken the biggest recall-pummeling, Edmunds predicted a 37.1 percent rise over March 2009. Looks like their crystal ball is in fine shape. Expect Toyota to surprise when March numbers come out. Read More >
Last Friday, a Rely X5 SUV rolled off the assembly lines of Chery Auto in Wuhu, Anhui Province, China. It was Chery’s 2 millionth car and won Chery the coveted membership in China’s “Two Million Club.” According to People’s Daily, Chery is the first non-state owned car maker to produce more than 2 million cars in China. Chery ranks fifth after Shanghai Volkswagen, FAW Volkswagen, Shanghai GM and Guangzhou Honda. Read More >
If you believed Chrysler’s bailout “viability plan” [paging Commissar Orwell…], you knew the new Chrysler 300 would be released in 2010. It’s a bit cut off at the top of the image above, but you can clearly see the words “…and the New Chrysler 300 in 2010.” And if you believed Chrysler’s five year plan, released last November, you knew the refreshed 300 would go on sale in 2010. That’s why there’s a little refresh icon by the 300 in 2010. But if you believe the latest word from the Wall Street Journal [sub], you now know that the 2011 Chrysler 300 will be released in… 2010. And that’s news how?
If you, dear reader, had expected (or, perish the thought, hoped) that SUA hype and rapid fire recalls would bring Toyota down, then stop reading immediately. What follows will not be good for your circulatory system. Read More >
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