U.S. Auto Sales Decline 12.4% in Early July
Domestic car sales fell 12.4% in early July compared to the same period last year, the eight domestic auto manufacturers reported Tuesday.
But, “sales are not as bad as they look,” said David Healy, an auto industry analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert. He explained that the car sales in the first 10 days of July, 1986, were exceptionally strong with a seasonally adjusted annual rate that reached 8.5 million.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, new cars sold at an annual rate of 7.4 million in the first 10 days of this month. The annual rate is a reflection of the number of cars that would be sold if the period’s sales pace continued for a full year.
“The market is stabilizing a little bit . . . between 7 million units and 7.4 million units,” said Ted Sullivan, an auto analyst with Wharton Econometrics. “All that weakness in the first part of the year is behind us.”
The seasonally adjusted annual rate was 6.8 million units in May and 7.1 million units in the last 10 days of June.
Ford Bucks Trend
Among the Big Three domestic auto makers, only Ford’s sales increased. They rose a scant 0.8 %. Ford’s domestic market share (excluding imports) jumped to 30.3%, compared to 26.3% in early July of last year.
Sales at General Motors dropped 22.1% during the same period. GM’s market share dropped 6%, to 48.8% this year from 54.8% last year, in spite of the introduction of its new Corsica-Beretta models, which captured 3% of the industry’s sales. This suggests that the new models are competing with the sales of other GM models, rather than those of other auto manufacturers.
Chrysler sales fell 27.8%. This is the second 10-day period that Chrysler’s sales volume dropped more sharply than GM’s. Chrysler reported a market share of 12.9% compared to 15.7% last year.
Among the smaller domestic car manufacturers, American Motor’s sales dropped 50.0%, and Volkswagen’s sales fell 51.6%. Honda reported a sharp increase of 235.4% in its sales of U.S.-built cars, largely due to the start this year of U.S. production of its Civic model.
Toyota sold 605 U.S.-made autos in early July. It started manufacturing the domestically produced Corolla FX and FX16 models in September of 1986, so there is no comparison figure for the year-ago period.
AUTO SALES
July 1-10 July 1-10 % 8-Day 1987 1986 change GM 80,986 103,896 -22.1 Ford 50,255 49,848 +0.8 Chrysler 21,430 29,686 -27.8 Honda U.S. 9,401 2,803 +235.4 AMC* 675 1,350 -50.0 VW U.S.* 899 1,858 -51.6 Nissan U.S. 1,659 33 +4927 Toyota U.S. 605 -- -- TOTAL 165,910 189,474 -12.4
*Estimate
