It’s the Merry Month of May for Auto Makers
Auto makers posted one of their strongest U.S. sales months ever in May, exceeding the industry’s own expectations as demand for new cars and light trucks showed no sign of slowing.
May’s year-to-year gains were expected to be muted because of the comparison to a particularly robust May 1998, when sales were boosted by a discount coupon war between General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and what was then Chrysler Corp.
But a burst of sales over the long Memorial Day weekend helped most auto makers end the month with impressive gains. Monthly sales records were set by the Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz units of DaimlerChrysler, Toyota Motor Corp. and its Lexus division, Ford’s Jaguar unit and Kia Motors Co.
“It’s one of the two or three strongest months ever; maybe the strongest month that wasn’t influenced by changes in the tax law or other artificial stuff,” said analyst David Healy of Burnham Securities.
Industrywide, sales were up about 6% excluding Suzuki Motor Corp., a small player that planned to report its sales today. Sales by European auto makers were up 32%, Asian companies gained 11%, while GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler’s U.S. brands edged up 2.5%.
Ford posted one of the biggest increases--up 10% compared with a year ago. It had a surprising 18% increase in car sales, excluding its Jaguar and Volvo models. Ford’s light trucks--pickups, sport-utility vehicles, vans and minivans--were up 6% for a May record.
Ford said Wednesday it would boost its second-quarter production 8% from a year ago, its third increase since March, in light of the strong sales performance.
DaimlerChrysler’s U.S. sales were up 6%, led by an 8% increase in truck sales.
GM was the biggest disappointment in May’s sales contest. Its sales were off 5%. Despite its hot-selling full-size pickups, overall sales of GM’s light trucks declined 2%; its full-size SUVs took the biggest hit.
European auto makers once again had the greatest percentage gains. Although they sell far fewer vehicles in the United States than either the domestic or Asian auto makers, they have been steadily gaining market share over the last two years.
In fact, the Europeans have had double-digit, year-over-year percentage gains for the last 20 months. In May, Volkswagen posted a 56% increase for its best May in 20 years; Saab, half-owned by GM, more than doubled its sales from a year ago; Ford’s Volvo unit was up 21%.
Asian auto makers also did well. Toyota had its best month ever as sales grew 4.7%. A 15.8% rise in SUV and minivan sales more than offset a 1.1% drop in car sales.
Honda Motor Corp. sales jumped 6% to a new May record. Honda car sales were flat, but trucks, boosted by the Odyssey minivan and CR-V small sport-utility, rose 42.6%.
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Top 10 Cars and Trucks
The following are the 10 top-selling vehicles in the United States through May as reported by the auto makers.
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Rank/vehicle 1999 1998 ’98 rank 1. Ford F-Series pickup 368,676 321,673 1 2. Chevrolet Silverado pickup 255,237 244,837 2 3. Toyota Camry 187,953 150,515 7 4. Ford Ranger pickup 177,627 130,204 10 5. Dodge Ram pickup 171,335 160,577 4 6. Ford Explorer 167,192 157,452 5 7. Honda Accord 166,028 162,005 3 8. Ford Taurus 145,701 154,698 6 9. Dodge Caravan 139,509 131,275 9 10. Honda Civic 129,531 138,559 8
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Source: Reuters
