We’re right on the verge of having 12 million in vehicle sales
UAW boss Ron Gettelfinger waxes optimistic in a recent speech at Wayne State University [via The Freep]. “Not so fast,” says Automotive News [sub]’s delightfully cranky senior editor, John K. Teahen Jr., in a piece appropriately titled 12 million sales this year? Don’t hold your breath.
As my revered colleagues at China Car Times rightly remark, “March is the first full month of car sales after the Chinese New Year where the majority of dealerships are closed for around two weeks, thus stunting growth of that month, but March is always a very busy month with many customers flush with cash after the New Year.” That’s why everybody who knows the Chinese car industry has a sharp eye on the March numbers. And that’s why everybody gasped when total vehicle sales in China climbed 55.79 percent from March a year earlier. Something else happened. A revolution. (Read More…)
Anonymous sources tell the always on-point pickuptrucks.com that Honda will not be replacing its Ridgeline pickup when its lifecycle ends after the 2011 model year. Honda is refusing comment on the Ridgeline’s future, but did tell AL.com that production will continue through 2011, and that “as of right now, we have no plans to discontinue Ridgeline.” But from a sales perspective, Honda might do well to let the unibody pickup die of natural causes. Though the unconventional Ridgeline came close its initial sales goals of about 50k units per year for the first three years of its life, by 2008 sales had dropped to 33,875. Last year the sales drop snowballed, with a 51 percent volume drop to 16,464 units. So yeah, we’ve been noticing that Honda seems less than completely enthused about its tentative attempt at the truck market. The end could well be near. Hilarious counterpoint to Howie Long’s video (above) available here.
Our oracle of Shanghai, Kevin Wale, president and managing director for GM’s China operations, is chickening out. “Anything is possible in China. We are very bullish about future potential here,” he said. And then he predicted that GM China will sell 2m vehicles this year, China Daily reports. Why is that chickening out, you ask? (Read More…)
Friday’s announcement of mindblowing Chinese sales numbers must have had an effect on the minds of the reporting profession, as evidenced by a quick read of the news. They are all over the landscape. (Read More…)
China’s SAIC is basking in the glow of another bang-up quarter. China’s biggest automaker told Reuters that their first-quarter net profit rose more than four times from the year-ago result. Detailed numbers will be released with SAIC’s full first-quarter earnings report on April 28. Keep in mind that last year’s results already were 9 times those of 2008. In March, SAIC sold 336,387 units, sales for the first quarter were up 64 percent from a year earlier to 891,795 units. To put it into perspective: All of Germany sold 670,410 cars in the first three months of 2010. SAIC singlehandedly outsold Germany by 221,385 units. (Read More…)
When all this SUA happened to Toyota, many predicted that Toyota was on a downward spiral to assured destruction. Well, turns out rumours of their death were a bit premature. In February, Toyota achieved record sales in Australia and Canada and their decline in the United States, was a lot less than many had predicted. In March, Toyota’s sales (with the help of some incentives, which were below industry average) grew. Now Toyota can add the UK to the mix. (Read More…)
Underpinning further indications that the luxury segment is climbing off its death bed, Audi just announced amazing numbers for the first quarter of 2010. Audi just had the best quarter in recorded Audi history. Audi’s worldwide sales climbed by 26 percent in the first three months of 2010, writes Das Autohaus [sub]. In March, the four-ringed daughter of Volkswagen sold 110.400 – never had Audi sold so many cars in a single month. And who’s buying all those Audis? (Read More…)
A while ago, we predicted that China’s March new car sales might exceed expectations. We came to that conclusion by reading the usually reliable tea-leaves of the March GM sales. They came in at 68 percent above March 2009. Using them as an indicator, growth of overall March sales in China could be in the 50 to 60 percent range. Analysts polled by Reuters think the number will be 30 – 40 percent. It looks like they are wrong. (Read More…)
Have you ever seen a junkie on withdrawal? Not a pretty sight. This is what the German car market looks like. Taken off Abwrackprämien-money, cold turkey has got Germany on the run. According to just released data of the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt, March 2010 new car registrations in Germany are 26.6 percent below March 2009. (Read More…)
Conspicuous consumption gradually is becoming socially agreeable again around the world, or so it seems. Germany’s auto motor und sport cornered Mercedes-Benz Cars sales chief Joachim Schmidt at the New York Auto Show. Schmidt said “we are probably going to reach a plus of more than 10 percent in global vehicle sales in the first quarter.” Why the sudden growth? (Read More…)
The NY Auto Show? Let’s talk about what is not there: The star of the Geneva Auto Show, the gas-electric hybrid Porsche 918 Spyder Concept. It is not there because it’s, as Motortrend reports, “en route to the Beijing Auto Show.” (Read More…)
We no longer have the dubious honor of leading this category. We’ve been down that road before, and we know it’s a dead end.
Edmunds [via Earth Times] has released its monthly “True Cost of Incentives” list, and GM tops the list, followed closely by Chrysler and Ford. Good thing Sergio Marchionne narrowly avoided “getting pulled into an incentive war.” That Chrysler’s sales couldn’t beat last March’s numbers even with these incentives tells you everything you need to know about the state of play in Auburn Hills. Oh, and how is GM’s incentive “leadership” supposed to jive with marketing boss Susan Docherty’s insistence [via the WSJ [sub]] that GM is reigning in its incentives? Who knows. Meanwhile, Ford’s impressive 2010 numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt in light of the Blue Oval’s continuing dependence on spiffs and fleet sales (speaking of which, fleet numbers are up 64 percent at GM, and Ford had a 30 percent-ish fleet mix in March[ via FT]). In fact, Toyota’s much-vaunted move towards incentives seems to not only have helped its sales, it may have also scared Detroit back into some nasty old habits.
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.
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