Impreza and Tribeca were the only Subarus that failed to improve on their June 2009 sales numbers last month, dropping 16 and 78 percent respectively. The Legacy could have grown more aggressively as well, essentially holding steady at last year’s level. Outback and Forester continue to be the big winners, combining for over 14k sales, or about two-thirds of Subaru’s monthly volume.
Honda may not have suffered from a recall crisis the way Toyota did earlier this year, but its sales are equally flaccid this month, increasing only six percent in a month when the market grew by double digits. Because it doesn’t have a convenient excuse for this weakness, one is forced to conclude that its products simply aren’t resonating with consumers. Accord grew by less than 12 percent, despite including sales of the brand-new Crosstour CUV, which means the sedan has gone soft as the new “wagon” sold 1,848 units. Insight continues to flounder, failing once again to crack 2k units, and the ZDX appears to be just the latest unpopular product for Acura, selling only 265 units last month. Without solid growth from reliably popular products like Civic (+26.3%, 26,474 units), CR-V (+17%, 16,041 units), MDX (+63.8%, 3,847 units) and TSX (+33%, 2,510 units), Honda would be in deep, deep trouble.
Despite struggling with a recall scandal early this year, Toyota has held on for a 10 percent sales increase in the first half of 2010. Of course, that achievement had a cost, namely a huge first-half binge on incentives. Now that Toyota is dialing back the spiffs, its sales are becoming downright flaccid, expanding only 7 percent in a June that saw 11 percent market growth. That means Toyota is slowly falling behind, now that it no longer has either an untouchable reputation or record incentives. Old standbys like the Camry and Corolla may have increased, but only to the tune of single digit growth. Meanwhile, Lexus, Scion and Toyota cars performed worse than June of 2009, leaving trucks to bring Lexus and Toyota sales up into the low double digits. Toyota’s hybrids sold 14,639 units, despite a decline in Prius sales, which still make up the bulk of Toyota’s hybrid sales. Toyota has not published fleet or retail numbers. Full volume numbers after the jump.
Once again, Hyundai-Kia have netted another positive year-over-year month, with both brands shattering their June sales records and Hyundai setting a new all-time monthly market share record. Hyundai has been year-over-year positive for 18 months straight now. Most importantly of all, in this weak market, is Hyundai’s claim that
The strength of our new product has driven a 45 percent pure retail sales increase while simultaneously allowing us to reduce incentive spending by about the same amount…While our total sales are up 25 percent calendar year-to-date, our fleet sales are down 21 percent
Please believe, every automaker in the US market wishes they could say that right now. Full numbers after the jump.
A year ago, Chrysler used one word to qualify nearly every sales figure it gave in its June 2009 sales report: Retail. Today, Chrysler blithely reports that overall sales were up 35 percent, but fails to use the “R” word even once in its June 2010 release, suggesting that it benefited from heavy fleet sales in the face of an otherwise soggy market. How else do you sell 3,978 Sebrings and 6,400 Avengers in a month? The fact that Dodge saw a 67 percent increase, although that was largely in comparison to the utterly wretched June the brand endured last year. In fact, compared to its relatively strong May performance of 104,819 units, Chrysler shed about 10k sales, falling to 92,482 total sales. That’s under the 95k monthly “survival” rate cited by CEO Sergio Marchionne. All this while Chrysler spends an estimated $1.4b on advertising this year. This, to paraphrase another automotive blogger, is beyond the valley of the not so good.
Without Volvo, Ford sold 170,900 units last month, for a 15 percent increase compared to June 2009, when the industry was mired in one of its worst years ever. Compared to last month, Ford’s sales (like many other automakers’) were down considerably from their 196,671 unit level. That’s yet another indication of the market’s overall weakness, but Ford’s got its own special problems as well. Even after the announced death of Mercury, Lincoln is nosediving, failing to top its June 2009 number of 7,137 units. At 6,318 units, Ford sold fewer Lincolns last month than GM sold Tahoes. Ouch. Meanwhile, Mercury blithely outsold its fellow premium brand by a healthy margin, moving 9,250 units. Otherwise, the news at Ford was “steady.”
Sales of GM’s four “core brands” were up 36 percent last month [release here], however that number is compared to June 2009 sales, when GM was in bankruptcy. Even against this backdrop, however, GM’s sales show some signs of continued weakness. Though Chevrolet gained 32 percent in overall, its retail sales improved a mere 11 percent, meaning a huge number of Chevy’s sales went to fleets. Out of Buick’s 53 percent volume gain, retail sales increased only 28 percent. Cadillac had much less of a fleet problem than Buick and Chevy, increasing sales 339 percent and retail sales 35 percent. GMC did not release retail numbers for GMC, but noted that GM’s overall fleet sales were 59,571 for the month. That means nearly one in three vehicles sold by GM last month went to a fleet, a percentage that accounts for the lion’s share of GM’s sales growth. Once again, Detroit seems addicted to fleet sales…
As the following table will demonstrate, June sales rose a tepid 14 percent over an extremely low June in the year before. 860,004 light vehicles had changed hands in June 2009, a drop of 27.7 percent from June 2008. This June, 983,821vehicles left dealer lots, nowhere near the 1,189,518 units that were sold in June 2008. (Read More…)
Japanese new car sales rose 20.6 percent year on year to 293,537 units in June, up for the 11th straight month, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association just told The Nikkei [sub]. And the best part is: (Read More…)
It’s that time of the month again. Today, sales in the U.S. will be reported. “Yucky” will probably be their nicest adjective. “U.S. auto sales this month probably posted the smallest increase since February as consumers concerned about unemployment and the economy avoid large purchases, analysts said” to Bloomberg.
Analysts polled by Bloomberg think June SAAR will be anywhere between 10.4 and 11m, the averaged number comes out to an annualized rate of 11.2 million units. More than last year’s horrendous June number of 9.7m, but less than 11.6 million in May. There will be little reason to celebrate. (Read More…)
It used to be that the U.S. was Porsche’s largest market, even in the double nickel days. Number two was the land of the Autobahn, Porsche home market Germany. This is about to change. (Read More…)
Pity the automotive industry. With a minimum three-year lead time for new product development, timing vehicle launches to coincide with appropriate fuel price levels is never easy. Chevy’s Volt, for example, was developed and hyped during the gas price spike of 2008 when it seemed almost anyone would pay a hefty premium to ease some of the pinch at the pump. Now though, with gas prices holding steady at around $3, there’s reason to question whether consumers will flock to unproven, expensive vehicles like the Volt, absent a pressing economic incentive to reduce gas consumption. The Freep takes on this topic today, asking with gas prices so low, will anyone buy a Volt? And this is not mere media hype. Bob Lutz fretted about this possibility last year, when he said
If gasoline stays cheap, then the American public says, “I’m not interested in that; I will keep my Tahoe longer.” It puts us in the industry in a position where we are at war with the customer
This would be a depressingly familiar position for GM to find itself in, especially since it would be a product of The General striving to do something different. Gas prices are slowly beginning to go up again, but there’s no sign that this summer will see the kind of energy price volatility that will have the Volt and Cruze (let alone the Nissan Leaf) flying off dealer lots. Do you see gas prices going up soon? How expensive will gas need to be before Americans see cars like the Volt as a mainstream option? What happens to the Volt if gas prices stay level, or even drop? No only are these intrinsically interesting questions, but there’s also lots of money (including lots of taxpayer money) riding on the outcome. What say you?
If anybody harbored plans to kick Toyota in the shins and topple them from their top spot as the world’s largest automaker: Well, it didn’t work. Wags all over the world were predicting the worst for Toyota, but the numbers tell a totally different story. In the first five months of 2010, all units of Toyota produced 55.1 percent more cars worldwide than in the same period of 2009. The following table speaks for itself.
If you’re hoping the US market is in the midst of an upswing, it’s time to start adjusting expectations. Ford’s Mark Fields says the market has “flat-lined” since Q3 of last year, telling BusinessWeek
The consumer is feeling a bit better, but not enough to go out and go back to the old ways of spending. It gives us pause because of the tight labor market and the overall situation in the credit markets
Edmunds has released its forecast for June, and though it shows sales up consistently from May 2009’s miserable numbers, there seems no question but that June’s sales will be lower than May’s. Edmunds sees an 11.2m unit SAAR for June, down from 11.6m last month. We’ll wait to see the actual June numbers before we officially end all hope of a strong recovery, but it’s starting to look more and more like 2009 was closer to “the new normal” than anyone wants to think.
BMW, it turns out, can sell out more than just the odd “frozen grey” special-edition M3. According to BusinessWeek, BMW’s sales boss has confirmed that the new 5 Series is sold out, and that customers will have to wait between three and four months for orders to be processed.
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