Beginning yesterday, automakers began releasing their sales figures for the month of August and, for the most part, they were dismal. Lower year over year sales declines were the common thread among the reports from Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Honda and Chrysler.
Falling gas prices have little effect
It’s interesting to note that even with falling gas prices; the sales declines for all manufacturers were led by consumers continuing to turn away from full-size pickup trucks and big sport utility vehicles. Everyone, it seems, accepts the fact that high (or at least higher) gas prices are here to stay. Although there was a slight uptick in the sales of these larger vehicles, some of that recovery can be attributed to the large incentives that most manufacturers are putting “on the hood” of trucks and SUVs.
Here, then, is a thumbnail of the top 5 in year over year sales for August:
Toyota: overall sales down 9.4 percent
The good news for Toyota: Sales of the Yaris and Camry were both up and the new Yaris 5-door hatchback should help sales of that model even more.
The bad news: Lexus sales were down, Scion sales were down and Toyota can’t build enough of the Prius Hybrid to meet demand. Making matters worse, Toyota drank from the big pickup Kool-Aid and now has a 1.2 billion dollar assembly plant in San Antonio that was built to assemble 200,000 plus Tundra pickups, while sales of the truck were down 8% in August and 14.5% for the year.
General Motors: overall sales down 20 percent
The good news for GM: Sales in August were up 31% over July, due in no small measure to the “Employee Pricing” incentive that is currently running. Retail car sales were up at Chevrolet, Pontiac and Cadillac – with the Cadillac CTS showing an 87% increase and the Pontiac Vibe a 95% increase in year over year August sales. The GMC Acadia/Saturn Outlook/Buick Enclave trio is also doing well.
The bad news: The Chevrolet Aveo and Cobalt, both small cars, posted sales declines of 21.3% and 26.6% respectively, year over year. Year over year sales of Cadillac trucks were down 49%, Saab sales were down 50%, while HUMMER sales, even with GM employee pricing, suffered a 62% drop.
Ford Motor Company: overall sales down almost 27 percent
The good news for Ford: August sales of the Focus were up 23% year over year, while sales of the Escape were up 17%.
The bad news: August year over year SUV sales at Ford were down 53%, F-Series pickup sales were down 42% while Volvo sales – the entire brand – plunged almost 49%.
American Honda: overall sales down 7.3 percent
The good news for Honda: August Civic sales were up 5.3%, Civic Hybrid sales were up 47.7%, while sales of the new Pilot were up 18.6% year over year.
The bad news: Following industry trends, total Honda light truck sales were down 10.3% year over year. Car sales were also down 4.9%, but this was primarily due to the fact that most Honda dealers ran out of the Fit small car before the end of the month due to model changeover.
Chrysler: overall sales down 34 percent
The good news for Chrysler: August sales of the Dodge Grand Caravan and the Chrysler Town and Country minivans were up 7% over last year. The new Dodge Journey and Challenger are doing well, while Dodge Charger sales were up slightly year over year.
The bad news: Everything else from Chrysler is pretty much in the dumper. Total August truck sales were down 33%, while even Chrysler’s small cars aren’t selling well: Chrysler Sebring sales were down 46%, Dodge Avenger sales were down 41%, sales of the aging PT Cruiser were down a whopping 65%, while sales of the Jeep Patriot, up a total of 89% for the entire year, were down 21% in August year over year sales.
The Bottom Line
While most automakers will want to put August out of their minds as soon as possible, sales prospects for September don’t look much better.
Tags: buick enclave, cadillac, cadillac cts, camry, challenger, Chevrolet, chevrolet aveo, Chrysler, chrysler sebring, Chrysler Town and Country, civic, civic hybrid, cobalt, dodge avenger, dodge charger, dodge grand caravan, dodge journey, escape, f-series, fit, focus, Ford, general motors, gmc acadia, Honda, Hummer, jeep patriot, Lexus, pilot, pontiac, Pontiac Vibe, prius, pt cruiser, saab, saturn outlook, scion, Toyota, tundra, Volvo, yaris
Posted in Car | Post a Comment | RSS Feed
