Sales of Trucks, SUVs Rise
Sales of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles rebounded in September, automakers reported Tuesday, helped by heavy showroom incentives and a sharp decline in gasoline prices.
“The biggest trend that emerged this September was the relative revival of the mid-sized SUV and light-truck segments,” said Jesse Toprak, an analyst at auto data firm Edmunds.com.
That was good news for beleaguered Ford Motor Co., which is in the midst of a painful restructuring. Ford posted a 5.3% rise in car and light-truck sales last month, according to Autodata Corp., boosted by gains in its flagship F-Series pickup line and Explorer SUV.
The increase helped Ford reclaim -- if just barely -- its traditional No. 2 position in the U.S. auto market. Ford sold 223,033 vehicles in September. Toyota Motor Corp., which finished ahead of Ford in July and August, sold 222,950.
But Toyota’s 25% year-over-year sales gain was easily tops among the big automakers. Higher sales of its gas-sipping hybrids and strong demand for its pickups and SUVs helped the Japanese automaker increase its share of the U.S. market to 16.5% from 13.4% a year earlier.
“Toyota is the juggernaut,” said Jim Sanfilippo, an analyst with Automotive Marketing Consultants. “They had a hell of a month.”
General Motors Corp., the No. 1 U.S. automaker, posted a 3.5% decline in sales. Like Ford, GM is cutting back on low-profit sales to rental-car companies, contributing to some of the decline.
Overall, U.S. light-truck sales rose 5.4% to 720,092 from a year earlier, while car sales slipped almost 2% to 634,273.
A 20% drop in gasoline prices nationwide since early August helped move some of the heavy iron off dealer lots. But analysts aren’t predicting the return of the gas guzzler, which fell out of favor the last two years as pump prices rose.
“Most consumers are still skeptical about the long-term nature of gasoline prices,” Toprak said. “A short-term dip isn’t likely to change their behavior dramatically.”
Big showroom incentives clearly helped, especially on such vehicles as Toyota’s Tundra pickup, which posted a 74% year-over-year gain in sales, and Ford’s F-Series, which recorded a 1.7% rise in sales.
George Pipas, Ford’s manager of U.S. sales analysis, said the company had not changed its long-term outlook for pickups and SUVs.
“Our view is that the lower gas prices that we’ve been seeing are not going to pull anybody into this segment that didn’t want to be there,” Pipas said.
Ford and GM both benefited from favorable comparisons with September 2005, when their sales fell by double digits in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the end of a summer-long employee-price promotion.
Ford said Tuesday that it would offer no-interest, five-year loans on 2006 F-150, Ranger and Super Duty pickups during October and low-interest financing on 2007 models.
Among other automakers, DaimlerChrysler’s U.S.-based Chrysler Group recorded a 3.8% decrease in September sales, and Honda Motor Co. posted a 4.1% drop, according to Autodata. September sales at Nissan Motor Co., which is in talks with GM about a possible alliance, were off 5.6%.
For the first nine months of 2006, overall U.S. vehicle sales were down 3.7% compared with the same period a year earlier, with trucks off 8.2% and passenger cars up 1.8%.
GM’s year-to-date sales were down 11.3% and Ford’s off 8.6%, while sales at Toyota and Honda were up 12.5% and 4.3%, respectively.
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*--* Sept. sales % change YTD (In thousands from market of units) Sept. ’05 share GM 330.96 -3.5% 24.5% Ford 223.03 +5.3 16.8 Toyota 222.95 +25.0 15.2 Chrysler 168.89 -3.8 12.8 Honda 116.23 -4.1 9.1 Nissan 88.34 -5.6 6.1 Hyundai 33.38 -12.6 2.8 Kia 23.88 +2.0 1.7 BMW 20.34 -7.8 1.6 Mazda 20.26 +1.7 1.6
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Source: Autodata
