October sales better than September
November 4th, 2009
October 2009 was almost a photo finish compared to October 2008; just 104 sales separate the two with last October having the edge. In percentage terms, it works out to a .0124% deficit. If you want to play the Daily Sales Rate game, last month had one more selling day than October 2008, so the shortfall comes in at 3.58 percent.
Automakers sold or leased 838,052 cars and light trucks last month. The seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate (SAAR) came in at 10.46 million units, down 360,000 sales from last October’s SAAR, but 1.24 million ahead of September 2009 and the third-best reading so far this year and the best result for a month where sales weren’t fueled by government rebates.
Let’s hope the big plan Sergio Marchionne is revealing later today is a humdinger; Chrysler had another bad month though it was better than September and better than the prediction from Edmunds.com. The damage done by Daimler and compounded by the shortsighted moneywonks of Cerberus is really starting to show. Sales were down 30.4% for the month and are now 38.9 percent behind the first ten months of 2008. Chrysler’s market share in October was 7.85 percent, a drop of 3.43 percentage points from last October. In a market where the majority of the big pickups reported improved sales, sales of the Ram were down 30.4 percent and it dropped a spot, to number 9, in the Top 20. Sales of the Belvidere trio were down an average of 71.1% and volume was less than a quarter what it was last year. Last October, the Caliber and Patriot each beat the combined sales of the Compass, Patriot and Caliber this year.
Sales of the Caravan were up as it took the top spot in the minivan market for the month. The Town & Country came in third, behind the Toyota Sienna, which is now 858 sales behind the T&C for the year. The Honda Odyssey, which still has a firm grasp at the top of the minivan market in terms of year-to-date (YTD) sales, came in fourth in October.
General Motors posted its first month-over-month improvement in 21 months, up 4.7% on an 18.3% jump in sales of its light trucks. Not only were sales of newer models, like the Traverse, strong; sales of GM’s big trucks, like the Silverado and Sierra pickups, the Tahoe and Suburban and their GMC and Cadillac clones were also up sharply. It was more than enough to counter a 13% drop in passenger car sales. All four of GM’s “core” brands posted improved sales in October as the General picked almost an entire point of market share.
The new Camaro is really taking off, outselling the Mustang and Challenger for the month and it could be a close race to see whether the Mustang or Camaro will be the year’s best-selling pony car.
Ford also showed improvement, up 3.28% and picking up just over a half-point of market share. Car sales were up 9.9 % while truck sales beat October 2008 by 52 units for a .06% gain. Sales of Ford’s crossovers were up nicely, thought the Dodge Journey is still outselling the Flex. The F-Series pickup took an 8.8% hit in October but it still has a lock on its long-running title as best-selling vehicle in America. Volvo sales were up 19.37 percent; maybe Mr. Mulalley should rethink that deal with Geely.
Toyota and Honda had interesting months. Toyota beat its October 2008 sales by 64 units, a gain of .04 percent thanks to a 15.5% jump in Lexus sales. Honda missed hitting its year-ago totals by 362 sales, a drop of 0.4 percent. In Honda’s case, its premium brand hurt its final results. Honda sales were within five vehicles of matching October 2008 but Acura missed its mark by 357 sales.
Nissan beat its October 2008 numbers by 5.6 percent. Nissan itself was up 7.7% but a 9.3% slump in Infiniti sales trimmed the gain.
Once again, Subaru had big news, setting a new October sales record on a 44.7% leap in sales fueled by triple-digit improvements in sales of the Legacy and Outback.
The other Japanese automakers all missed their marks. Mazda came up 8.4% short, while Mitsubishi and Suzuki fought it out to see who could do worse. Suzuki won, with a 49.9% plunge, just ahead of Mitsubishi’s 48.3% fall.
The Koreans had a good month: Hyundai sales were up 48.9% and Kia wasn’t far behind with a 45.3% jump.
Mercedes-Benz was the top-selling German brand in October with a 21.3% increase, followed by Volkswagen which added 7.23% to its October 2008 total and remains the best-selling European car in the U.S. BMW, which is losing ground on Lexus in the YTD race, came in third with an 18.6% deficit.
At the end of October, the industry was 25.4% short of matching the first ten months of 2008. Just three automakers, Subaru, Hyundai and Kia, are in the black. Nonetheless, fears of a sub-10 million-unit year appear unfounded and it looks like the industry should finish the year with somewhere around 10.4 million sales.
Top 20 in Year-To-Date Sales
1. Ford F-Series, 334,922
2, Toyota Camry, 294,493
3. Chevrolet Silverado, 261,142
4. Honda Accord, 244,579
5. Toyota Corolla/Matrix, 240,755
6. Honda Civic, 223,751
7. Nissan Altima, 169,435
8. Honda CR-V, 158,573
9. Dodge Ram Pickup, 155,467
10. Ford Fusion, 148,045
11. Chevrolet Impala, 139,577
12. Ford Escape, 138,739
13. Ford Focus, 136,032
14. Chevrolet Malibu, 131,081
15. Toyota RAV4, 120,834
16. Toyota Prius, 118,290
17. Toyota Tacoma, 94,694
18. GMC Sierra , 91,327
19. Honda Odyssey, 84,761
20. Chevrolet Traverse, 75,156
LINK:
October sales better than September | Allpar Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep News
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