Ford, Japanese Sales Rates Climb; GM, Chrysler Lose

General Motors Corp.’s auto market share woes continued in the first half of 1989 and Chrysler Corp.’s effort stalled, but Ford Motor Co. added more gains to its stake, statistics from the companies show.

Sales figures for the year to date also reflected market share gains by Japanese auto makers Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Co., and Nissan Motor Corp. European auto makers, however, continued to show a diminished presence with only Volkswagen AG holding more than a 1% share.

Total sales of all vehicles were 7.67 million in the first half, down 6.6% from 8.21 million a year ago.

Market Shares Slide

Two of the major U.S. companies saw their market shares slide by more than a full point in the first half of the year.

GM, the largest U.S. auto maker, saw its first-half share of the market drop to 36% from 37.2% last year, despite concerted efforts by the company to reverse its slide. GM as recently as 1984 held a 46% share of U.S. auto sales.

Chrysler’s share dropped to 10.7% from 11.7% last year. The drop was due in part to an unfavorable mix of products at the start of the year, when Chrysler discontinued a number of aging models, and limited availability of its new Dodge Spirit and Plymouth Acclaim mid-sized cars.

Ford was the only market share gainer among U.S.-based companies in the first half. Its auto market share rose to 22.7% from 21.9%, a continuation of its growth from a low of 16% in 1982.

Among Japanese companies, Honda’s share grew to 7.5% from 6.7% a year ago, due both to improved sales of imported models and a sales gain by the Honda Civic, now built at Marysville, Ohio.

Toyota, which last year opened a new plant in Georgetown, Ky., ended the first half with a 6.1% market share, up from 5.3% a year ago. Strong sales of the Nissan Maxima helped Nissan’s share of the market climb to 5.2% from 4.3% last year.

European companies barely made a dent in the market. VW’s share was 1.4%, down from 1.7% a year ago, while Swedish automaker Volvo saw its share grow slightly to 1% from 0.9% last year.