New Car Sales Climb 7.4% in Early August : GM’s Decline Is Only One Among Big Three

Sales of domestic new cars rose 7.4% in early August even though industry leader General Motors was down 4.5%, the companies reported Wednesday.

U.S. auto makers sold 152,029 cars, or an average of 19,003 daily, in the Aug. 1-10 period, compared to 159,238, or 17,693 daily, in the same period last year.

Since there were eight selling days in the period this year and nine in 1985, percentage changes are calculated from the daily rate.

Industry analysts said that while sales were in line with their expectations, the decline by GM was a surprise.

GM’s market share slipped in early August to 51.6% from 58% in the period last year, while Ford said its share increased to 27.3% from 23.3% and Chrysler reported that it held 16.6% of the domestic market, up from 15.5% in the same 1985 period.

Ford and Chrysler both reported sales gains for the period, up 25.5% and 15.3%, respectively.

Analysts noted, however, that since sales were extremely weak in the period last year due to a strike by car haulers that prevented deliveries to dealers, year-to-year comparisons appeared more favorable.

Among the smaller manufacturers, American Motors said its sales were off 41.7%, Volkswagen of America reported a 9.4% increase and American Honda said its sales were up 546.5%. Due to limited supplies, Honda’s sales were the most adversely affected by the car haulers strike.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, U.S.-built new cars sold at an annual rate of 7.6 million in early August, up from a soft 7-million annual rate in the comparable 1985 period. The annual rate is a reflection of the number of cars that would be sold if a period’s sales pace were to continue for a full year.

Auto Sales

Percentage changes in auto sales for the first 10 days of August are based on daily rates rather than total sales volume. There were eight selling days in the 1986 period and nine in the year-ago period.

Aug. 1-10 Aug. 1-10 % 10-Day 1986 1985 change GM 78,355 92,298 -4.5 Ford 41,435 37,135 +25.5 Chrysler 25,274 24,640 +15.3 AMC* 1,400 2,700 -41.7 VW U.S. 1,118 1,149 +9.4 Honda U.S. 4,447 771 +546 Nissan U.S. N.A. 545 -- TOTAL 152,029 159,238 +7.4

*Estimate