GM, DaimlerChrysler Post Declines in Sales for July
Continuing the pattern of recent months, General Motors Corp. and the U.S. brands of DaimlerChrysler on Tuesday reported lower car and truck sales in July, as importers led by Honda Motor Co. of Japan and Volkswagen of Germany carved out an ever greater share of the U.S. market.
The combined market share of GM, DaimlerChrysler and Big 3 rival Ford Motor Co. fell to 63.7% from 66.2% a year ago, though Ford did post a 0.4% increase in unit sales.
Overall U.S. industry July sales were up 0.1% to 1,436,729 cars and light trucks--pickups, sport-utility vehicles and minivans--keeping the market on pace to match or even top last year’s record of 16.96 million new vehicles sold.
The rate at which vehicles sold in the U.S. last month would amount to 17.19 million over a full year. Though strong, the pace is far off the torrid first-quarter pace of 18.3 million in sales and down from 17.4 million in the second quarter.
“The most apt description we have is going from white hot to red hot,” said Paul Ballew, GM’s market analysis chief. “A little bit of moderation is not something we find unexceptional.”
PaineWebber analyst Joseph Phillippi said the industry has little to complain about at this point, noting: “This is not what you would characterize as much of a downturn since we’re still above last year’s record pace.”
Nevertheless, Burnham Securities analyst David Healy worried that the Federal Reserve Board and Chairman Alan Greenspan may factor in the strong auto sales to boost interest rates at its meeting later this month.
“These are not particularly Greenspan-friendly results,” he said.
GM, the world’s largest auto maker, said sales, excluding its Saab and heavy-truck operations, fell 2.7% to 391,075 units as light trucks were down, a fact the company blamed in part on low SUV availability. A decline was not unexpected, GM said, given that last year’s numbers were a record, though it was larger than the 0.2% average forecast by analysts.
DaimlerChrysler’s U.S. brands posted a 12.2% drop in sales, to 191,466 units, as the group continued to struggle with an aging lineup of cars and minivans that is being replaced in the next few months.
Ford, the No. 2 auto maker, said sales, excluding its Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover divisions, rose 0.4% to 331,689 units. Although Ford saw sales of its Expedition large SUV and Taurus mid-size sedan drop, strong demand for vehicles such as the Focus small car, Explorer mid-size SUV and Lincoln LS luxury sedan picked up the slack.
Japanese auto makers boosted their market share to 27.4% from 25.8% last year, thanks to strong demand for such trucks as Honda’s Odyssey minivan, Toyota Motor Corp.’s Tundra pickup and Nissan Motor Co.’s Xterra SUV.
Honda said U.S. sales rose 11.6% to a July record, due to strong demand for the Odyssey, CR-V compact SUV and Acura TL luxury sedan. Toyota and Nissan reported gains of 1% and 0.2%, respectively. Other Asian brands reporting record July U.S. sales included Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries’ Subaru.
European brands raised their market share to 6.1% from 5.6%. German luxury maker BMW’s sales rose 18.6%, and Volkswagen reported gains at its VW brand (up 9%) and Audi luxury unit (14.1%).
