Daily Auto News August Auto Sales Show Few Signs of Recovery
Daily Auto News
Automakers saw their tenth consecutive month of sales declines in the U.S. in August. High gas prices, a weak economy and declining home values continue to hurt sales, with domestic automakers hit the hardest. Some analysts see signs that the market has bottomed out, but others say a recovery by the auto industry may not come this year or even next.
The New York Times reports, “Domestic sales declined by 15.5 percent in August compared with the previous year…Even with some of the largest discounts ever offered, automakers were unable to sell many of the pickups and sport utility vehicles clogging dealers’ lots. Meanwhile, shortages of many popular, fuel-efficient cars hurt sales of those models.”
Further signs of a global realignment of the auto industry emerged in August. The Detroit Free Press notes Volkswagen took over third place in global sales, outselling Ford worldwide in August.
Once again, Chrysler led all automakers with the largest sales decline. Forbes reports, “Chrysler sold 110,235 vehicles in August, down 34.5 percent from 168,203 in the same month last year.” Only Chrysler’s lineup of minivans and the Dodge Charger sedan saw any sales growth.
Ford suffered a 26.6 percent sales drop, according to AFP. Ford brands sold 39 percent fewer trucks, and a jaw-dropping 53 percent fewer SUVs, compared to last August.
General Motors posted a 20.3 percent sale drop, reports the AP. However, GM saw “a 31 percent improvement over July’s totals.” GM sales benefitted from the automaker’s “employee pricing for everyone” sale for the last 11 days of August, which is a mixed blessing for the largest American automaker — they’re selling more vehicles, but at lower profit. The incentives may also have lured some buyers into showrooms early, but taken those same shoppers out of the Fall market. Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of North American sales, told the AP “the discounts may cost GM 4,000 to 5,000 sales during the next four months or so.”
Foreign automakers suffered sales drops as well, though few were hit as hard as the domestic brands. Reuters reports Toyota “said on Wednesday its U.S. auto sales fell 9.4 percent in August, led by a 16.4 percent drop in truck sales.”
MarketWatch notes Honda’s August U.S. sales dropped 7.3 percent last month.
The only large automaker to report a sales increase over August of last year was Nissan, according to Bloomberg.
Still, some analysts see a light at the end of the tunnel for the auto industry.
The AP notes that in reporting sales figures, several of the companies “said consumer sentiment was improving, housing price declines and manufacturing production are stabilizing, and exports continue to be strong.” However, “Officials at GM and other automakers tempered their remarks by saying that they’ll face challenging conditions for the rest of this year and even into 2009.”
Business Week reports that GM’s LaNeve “hoped aloud that maybe industry sales have struck bottom,” in a call with reporters, saying August results “give us reason to think we’re pulling our way out of this.”
But Motor Trend comments, “Automakers are eternally optimistic, just like the sales people who move the iron. We may have seen the worst of it in July but even with oil edging down to $108 per barrel,” they “don’t see substantial relief in sight.” The major domestic automakers are retooling their production plans, shifting to build more small cars and fewer trucks and SUVs for the 2010 model year. Motor Trend predicts, “We may have to wait for the GM-Ford seismic shift to small cars coming in late ’10 before we see a full resurgence in car/truck sales.”
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