Domestic Car Sales Fall 15% for Early June
Domestic car sales fell 15% in early June, the auto makers reported Monday, as sagging sales at General Motors, the industry leader, dragged the market down.
GM, which has suffered declining sales for months, reported a 26% drop in the early June period. GM’s sales problems have contributed to the domestic industry’s high inventory levels of unsold cars, which reached nearly 2 million in dealerships or in transit as of June 1.
Among the four U.S.-based car companies, only Ford saw an increase--up 7.2% during early June, compared to the same period in June, 1986. Chrysler sales were down 20.8% and AMC dropped 63.5%.
Taken together, the combined sales of GM, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors fell 17.6%. At the same time, combined sales of U.S.-built cars produced by foreign manufacturers rose.
There were nine selling days in the period this year and eight selling days last year. As a result, the percentage changes are computed based on the daily sales rate.
Overall sales of U.S.-built cars produced by foreign firms rose 91.2% during early June.
Nissan’s sales soared 3,272.7%, to 3,341 units, compared to 89 last year when Nissan was just starting to build cars in the United States. Honda’s sales were up 90%. And Toyota sold 160 domestically produced cars in the early June selling period. It did not sell U.S.-built cars in the comparable selling period last year.
Of the domestic cars produced by foreign firms, only Volkswagen reported lower sales. Its sales dropped 55.8%.
“The picture is mixed,” said David Healy, an automotive analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert. “GM’s sales are down sharply but Ford’s sales are actually up.”
Healy said that high June inventory levels were created by weak total sales in May and excess production at GM. He added, however, that “GM has been making aggressive production cuts to control their inventory.”
On a seasonally adjusted basis, new cars sold at a rate of 7.3 million units, down from 8.6 million in the 1986 period. The rate reflects the number of cars that would be sold if the period’s sales pace continued for a full year.
AUTO SALES Percentage changes in auto sales for the first 10 days of June are based on daily rates rather than total sales volume. There were 9 selling days in the current period and 8 in the year-ago period.
June 1-10 June 1-10 % 10-Day 1987 1986 change GM 107,427 128,977 -26.0 Ford 60,389 50,088 +7.2 Chrysler 29,078 32,609 -20.7 Honda U.S. 6,712 3,135 +90.3 AMC* 595 1,450 -63.5 VW U.S.* 997 1,988 -55.4 Nissan U.S. 3,341 89 +3272 Toyota U.S. 160 -- -- TOTAL 208,699 218,336 -15.0
*Estimate
