U.S. Auto Sales Fall 15.6% in Early April
After months of surprisingly strong sales, the domestic auto industry suffered a sharp setback in early April, when sales dropped 15.6%, the eight U.S. producers reported Wednesday.
Many industry analysts have been predicting a sales slowdown for months, and so the early April figures finally lived up to their pessimistic expectations.
“Most analysts are looking for a sales downturn, but aggressive incentives so far this year have definitely prevented that,” said Dennis A. Sperduto, an auto analyst with Argus Research in New York. “This most recent sales period may be an indication that the impact of incentives is wearing off. Some of the more economy-wide influences and longer-term auto industry factors . . . may be asserting themselves now.”
Among the Big Three automotive companies, General Motor’s sales plunged 18.8%, Ford’s sales fell 15.9% and Chrysler’s sales dropped 7.8%.
Honda was the only U.S. auto company that reported an increase in domestic sales. Honda’s sales rose 31.7% in early April.
An analyst with Ford said the drop in sales was an expected adjustment in the auto market, but not a catastrophe. He said it should bring the early 1988 surge in auto sales more in line with the predicted auto sales trend of between 6.4 million and 6.9 million units by the end of the year.
“The October and November months of 1987 were below trend, thus a correcting surge in early 1988 was not unexpected,” the Ford analyst said. “This early-1988 surge was measured against the soft early months of 1987. We have experienced three months of above-trend and above-year-ago sales. Frankly, I thought (we were) due for an equalizing correction. . . . That doesn’t mean the market was falling apart, only correcting.”
AUTO SALES Percentage changes in auto sales for the first 10 days of April are based on daily rates rather than total sales volume. There were eight selling days in the current period and nine in the year-ago period.
April % 10-Day 1988 change GM 71,284 -18.8 Ford 42,979 -15.9 Chrysler 22,640 -7.8 Honda U.S. 5,610 +31.7 VW U.S.* 538 -45.0 Nissan U.S. 1,154 -50.8 Toyota U.S. 519 -16.4 MazdaU.S. 230 -- TOTAL 144,954 -15.6
*Estimate
