Auto Sales for May

U.S. auto sales are still down 39% versus a year ago, which is still a substantial 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 1.1 million cars.

Ford and GM sold more cars in May and cut the downward spiral sales for the month. During April, Ford and GM sales were down 32% and 35% respectively. An interesting fact is that GM declared bankruptcy during May but their sales were up from the prior month. Meanwhile, Chrysler stayed down 47% for both months.

Mitsubishi down 58%
Chrysler down 47%
Honda down 42%
Toyota down 41%
Mazda down 40%
Nissan down 33%
Mercedes down 31%
General Motors down 29%
BMW down 28%
Ford down 24%

Volvo down 23%

Hyundai down 20%
Volkswagen down 16%
Kia down 16%
Subaru down 5%

It appears that new products were the reason behind the twenty percent increase in sales over April. The Ford Fusion, Ford Flex and the company's hybrids set sales records. In addition, two new Lincoln sedans the MKZ and the MKS helped Lincoln post a 2% increase.

Ford's Fusion set a record of 18,321 cars breaking into the top three mid-size sedan market for the first time 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.

May sales were up at a fairly decent run rate of 1.1 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!