Wednesday, April 1, 2009

March Car Sales Are Up In Parts of The World

Government incentives are having an impact in various areas of the world for the month of March. Most of the increases are due to government programs to increase auto sales. Brazil auto sales are up 17% versus last March, the first increase in six months. Sales also rose strongly in France and Italy, with the decline slowing in Spain. China has just reported and sales are up 25% over last year. Germany has a new car for old car program in which almost a million people have taken advantage.

In Japan, the auto sales dropped 25% from last year, meanwhile Korean auto sales decreased by 19%. U.S. sales are still down substantially but by slightly lower number that in February.
  • General Motors down 45%
  • Ford down 41%
  • Chrysler down 39%
  • Toyota down 39%
  • Nissan down 38%
  • Honda down 36%
  • Hyundai down 2%

GM is asking for $6 billion in aid from several countries, including Sweden, Germany, Britain and Thailand. German Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated that they need a viable restructuring plan before Germany considers any bailouts.

Many of the manufacturers think that the market may be bottoming and that we could start seeing sales increases by the end of the year. Share prices for the auto manufacturers increased today on speculation that the industry will start increasing sales. Toyota, Honda and Nissan were up 6 - 10% in trading in Tokyo.

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10 comments:

  1. Giovanna GarciaApril 2, 2009 at 12:23 AM

    Hi Pete

    How does Hyundai manage to only be down 2%? That is great for Hyundai, do you think that may be there is something about Hyundai that other can learn from...
    Thanks,
    Giovanna Garcia
    Imperfect Action is better than No Action

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hilary Melton-ButcherApril 2, 2009 at 5:48 AM

    Hi Pete .. the car market is a strange beast! & it will be interesting to see what happens.

    The beast I was referring to in earlier post is the car that's been shipped over for President Obama to use .. all the bells and whistles proof!!

    There was a nostalgic program on BBC2 on Ford's Dagenham plant in Essex, where the Zephyr, the Capri and the Zephyr were all built - I didn't watch I'm afraid!

    Thanks for sharing the ongoing saga of the car market -
    Hilary Melton-Butcher
    Positive Letters

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peter BacaApril 2, 2009 at 8:35 AM

    Hi Giovanna,

    Hyundai is doing well based on really good products! The number of products have increased also with the Hyundai Genesis see March 1st post. The pricing is thousands below some good competitors, the Genesis is tens of thousands below. Also, they have a really superior warranty with good reliability.

    Thanks for commenting!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete
  4. Peter BacaApril 2, 2009 at 8:40 AM

    Hello Hilary,

    You really had me going about the beast! Here in the U.S. we refer to cars that are expremely powerful as beasts.

    The Pres. car is an armored Cadillac limosine. Yes, we do have a number of beasts here...they call them limos. They ship some to Europe so you will see one occassionaly, here in Newport Beach there are a lot of them.

    Thanks for the comment!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete
  5. Peter BacaApril 2, 2009 at 8:13 PM

    Hi Giovanna,

    Your right Hyundai is doing a number of things right! First, they are building good cars! Second, they are pricing them $1,000's below the competition. Third, they have good quality and a great warranty.

    GM and Ford did come out with a similar program to help people out if they are laid off etc. They need to do somethings to bring buyer confidence up.

    Thanks for your comment!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownApril 2, 2009 at 8:25 PM

    Hi Pete,

    US Economy is based on consumer market. In consumer market, the car market is important part. So, by following your article, I can see how US and world economy goes. I do hope that the bottom is hit and improve the sales for all of them.

    Thank you for your post and info.

    Shaw Funami
    Fill the Missing Link

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hilary Melton-ButcherApril 3, 2009 at 4:32 AM

    Hi Pete .. I had thought of doing a post on President Obama's beast .. as it has some very interesting stats .. doors stronger than a Boeing 747 .. etc

    We do have limos - here .. one got stuck on a roundabout just down the road .. I was able to skip (drive) through before it completely blocked everyone up .. they just are not suitable for our roads!!

    Hilary Melton-Butcher
    Positive Letters

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  8. Peter BacaApril 4, 2009 at 12:02 PM

    Hi Shaw,

    Thank you for your comments!

    Stimulous programs are starting to work around the world. Hopefully, the new programs in the U.S. will start auto sales here also.

    The car manufacturers cannot survive without sales increasing! There manufacturing bases are so large that these substantial decreases are difficult to overcome.

    Best Regards

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete
  9. Peter BacaApril 4, 2009 at 12:05 PM

    Hilary,

    You should do the post if your fascinated by the "Beast". I can link one of my posts to yours!

    Thanks for the information about limos in England! I will have to visit England your blog has been so fascinating!

    Thanks for your comments!

    Best Regards

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hilary Melton-ButcherApril 7, 2009 at 12:25 AM

    Hi Pete .. our sales here are 30% down this quarter. The other thing is that Germany have introduced an idea .. to get old cars off the road & swap at good rates for a new car .. helping the environment at the same time ..

    so England will look at other options to increase our new car sales .. as the change in registration plates that we have in the UK 09 for the first six months of the year (March - Aug) and then 59 for Sept 09 - Feb 2010 - have not made any difference to new car sales at the change over

    We'll have to see what happens ..

    Hilary Melton-Butcher
    Positive Letters

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