Auto Makers See Sales Drop in Late May
U.S. sales of cars and light trucks tumbled 3.5% in late May, auto makers reported Monday, dampening overall results for the usually robust two-month spring buying season.
“The spring selling season was a bust,” said auto analyst Joseph Phillippi of Shearson Lehman Hutton of New York.
The eight major U.S. auto makers reported they sold vehicles at an average daily rate of 52,767 during the May 21-31 sales period this year, compared to a daily rate of 54,654 in the year-earlier period. Car sales were off 0.8% and truck sales were down 8.3% from a year earlier.
For all of May, with imported sales included, cars and light trucks sold at a daily rate of 54,320, 4.9% below the daily rate of 57,134 set during May, 1988.
Normally, March and April are good months for auto and truck sales as Americans prepare for summertime driving.
General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler, which market the bulk of the cars and trucks sold in the United States, reported that April and May sales of North American-made cars and trucks were 0.7% ahead of sales during those two months last year.
A 6.3% rise in April, 1989, sales over April, 1988, was offset by a 4.4% decline in May, 1989, sales, compared to May of last year.
“It used to be that when you had incentives ending, sales would be strong,” said analyst Ron Glantz of Montgomery Securities Inc., San Francisco. “Recently, though, sales have been weak as incentives ended with customers saying, ‘Boy, cars are going to be given away if I wait.’ ”
Buyer incentives that GM and Ford put into effect at the beginning of April were due to expire at the end of May or early this month. But within the last two weeks, those packages were expanded and extended into July.
Through the first five months of the year, sales of cars and trucks made by the eight major U.S.-based companies were 3.6% below the pace set during the year-earlier period. Car sales were down 5%, and truck sales were off 1%.
Ford’s daily sales rate in late May fell 8.4% to 9,121 from late May, 1988. Ford light truck sales in late May declined by 2% from a year earlier.
GM said late-May car sales this year were 16,400 a day, down 3.1% from 16,927 during the period last year. Light truck sales during the period fell 16.5%.
Chrysler posted a modest 0.7% gain in car sales with a daily rate of 4,439, compared to 4,407 last year. Chrysler’s late-May truck sales were up 0.3%.
AUTO SALES
May 21-31 % 10-Day 1989 change GM 131,196 -3.1 Ford 72,971 -8.4 Chrysler 35,513 +0.7 Honda U.S. 24,038 +22.1 Mitsubishi U.S. 1,055 -- Nissan U.S. 4,403 -11.4 Toyota U.S. 7,768 +202.6 Mazda U.S. 2,284 +64.2 TOTAL 279,228 -0.8
There were 8 selling days in the selling period both this year and last.
