Friday, July 3, 2009

June U.S. Auto Sales

U.S. auto sales appear to be improving slightly! They are down from the last year but are only down 28% vs down 39% for the month of May. decline. It appears that the U.S. based automakers are having a rebound in sales with the exception of Chrysler. Sales were the best they have been since the summer of 2008....with a annual run rate of approximately 10 million cars.

Ford and GM sold more cars in June and cut the downward spiral sales for the month. During April, Ford and GM sales were down 11.2% and 33% respectively. An interesting fact is that GM is currently in bankruptcy and the bankruptcy has not impacted sales badly. Meanwhile, Chrysler who just came out of bankruptcy was down 42%.
  • Chrysler down 42%
  • Mazda down 42%
  • Mitsubishi down 42%
  • General Motors down 33%
  • Toyota down 32%
  • Honda down 30%
  • Mercedes down 23%
  • Nissan down 23%
  • Volkswagen down 23%
  • BMW down 20%
  • Hyundai down 20%
  • Ford down 11%
  • Kia down 5%
  • Volvo up 1%
  • Subaru up 3%
Ford seems to be the beneficiary of increased sales lately. It appears that new products were the reason behind the sales increase over May. The Ford Fusion, Ford Flex and the company's hybrids set sales records.

Ford's Fusion set a record of 18,561 cars breaking into the top three mid-size sedan market for the second month since July 2002. The Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan have the best predicted reliability among all mid-size sedans. The Japanese brands have dominated the mid-size segment with the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord.

June sales were up at a fairly decent run rate of 10 million cars annually. So, it appears that consumers had more faith in the future to spend money on high ticket items.

An interesting anomaly is that sales of Japanese brands continue with the downward spiral meanwhile U.S. manufacturers seem to be improving. We will have to monitor to see if that is a trend that will continue!

4 comments:

  1. Hi Pete .. perhaps people are buying their home country products?

    It's good if the American economy is not collapsing ..

    Thanks for keeping us up to date with sales ..
    Have a good Independence week ..
    Hilary Melton-Butcher
    Positive Letters

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  2. Hi Hilary,

    It appears that Americans are focusing more on U.S. produced products....I will advise to see if this trend holds up. The current state of the economy is questionable....but holding steady at the moment.

    Thanks for your comment!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

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  3. Hello Peter,
    Form the list it is interesting to see the ones that are up in sale Subaru and Volvo, Kia not far behind them as to the makes that are doing the best. Thank you for the information.
    Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"

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  4. Hi Dan & Deanna,

    That is a great question! First, none of the the companies here are in bankruptcy....which has reduced the sales of those companies.

    Subaru has maintained sales due to a high quality line up. They are the only manufacturer that Consumer Reports recommends every vehicle they sell in the U.S. Secondly, they are not a huge manufacturer with about 10% of GM sales.

    The Volvo sales are due to special incentives that they had during the period. They came out with a Safe and Sound program that covers maintenance, warranty, wear items, and roadside assistance for the warranty period 5 years or 60,000 miles.

    Kia has substantially increased their model line up. In addition, Kia automobiles are value priced....so during a downturn price impacts the sales.

    Thank you for your comments!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

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