Domestic Car Sales Climb 5% During March : Import Volume Declines 1.1% in Month; Effects of Rising Japanese Yen Cited
Led by a strong showing from Ford, domestic car sales rose 5% in March, the auto manufacturers reported Friday.
The domestic industry sold a total of 682,117 passenger cars during the month, compared to 649,351 units in March of last year, the eight U.S. manufacturers said. Import sales, meanwhile, fell 1.1%, with sales of 245,000 units, down from 247,806 units during the same period a year ago.
“This marks the first decline for import volume in many months,” a Ford spokesman said.
Total U.S. car sales increased 3.3%, rising to 927,117 units from 897,157 in March, 1986. There were 26 selling days in March of this year and last.
Analysts said they were disappointed by March’s sales pace. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate for domestic cars in March was 7.3 million units, while imported car sales lagged, with a 2.6-million annual rate. The rate for the total industry was 9.9 million. The annual sales rate is a reflection of the number of cars that would be sold if the current sales pace were to continue for a full year.
“(The modest annual rate) indicates that there is still some weakness in the marketplace . . . . Sales still are at unusually low levels,” said Chris Cedergren, an auto analyst at J. D. Power & Associates, a Westlake Village automotive market research firm. “They have not shown signs of moving out of the slow period.”
Disappointing Rate
He said 7.3 million units is a disappointing seasonal rate for domestic cars at this time of the year; he noted that the spring months usually yield the highest car sales. And, although domestic sales were up from last March, he noted that last year’s March sales were extremely weak.
Cedergren and other analysts said that for the first time, several Japanese auto makers were unable to sell all of the cars they were allowed to import under the Japanese quota system. The quota program’s fiscal year ended March 31, but all the Japanese have been raising their car prices during the past 18 months because of the sharp appreciation in the value of the Japanese yen against the dollar.
John Hammond, also of J. D. Power & Associates, said only Honda, Suzuki and Mitsubishi were able to meet or exceed their quota allocations in the fiscal year that just ended. Other Japanese cars sold far less. “This is a revealing statement showing that . . . the Japanese have difficulty selling cars at the higher yen-induced prices.”
AUTO SALES
% March 1987 1986 change GM 339,007 355,880 -4.7 Ford 197,328 167,490 +17.8 Chrysler 96,649 90,945 +6.3 Honda U.S. 28,476 15,175 +87.7 AMC* 2,748 6,300 -56.4 VW U.S. 4,324 6,198 -30.2 Nissan U.S. 10,130 7,363 +37.6 Toyota U.S. 3,455 -- -- DOMESTIC 682,117 649,351 +5.0 Toyota Imp. 40,554 39,008 +4.0 Nissan Imp. 41,824 33,357 +25.4 Honda Imp. 30,310 31,258 -3.0 Mazda 19,188 23,561 -18.6 Subaru 13,862 17,228 -19.5 VW Imp. 9,957 13,008 -23.5 Volvo 10,461 10,029 +4.3 Hyundai 19,502 -- -- Others* 59,342 80,357 -26.2 IMPORTS* 245,000 247,806 -1.1 Total U.S. 927,117 897,157 +3.3
* Estimate
