Tuesday, 02 February 2010

January 2010 Auto Sales by the Numbers

U.S. light-vehicle sales

Automaker Jan. 2010 Jan. 2009 Pct. chng. 1 month 1 month Pct. chng. 2010 2009 BMW Group* 15,439 14,344 8% – – –% Chrysler Group LLC 57,143 62,157 –11% – – –% Daimler AG** 15,447 12,223 26% – – –% Ford Motor Co.*** 116,277 93,044 25% – – –% General Motors**** 146,315 128,198 14% – – –% Honda (American)† 67,479 71,031 –5% – – –% Hyundai Group†† 52,626 46,608 13% – – –% Isuzu – 165 –100% – – –% Jaguar Land Rover††† 2,589 2,657 –3% – – –% Maserati 101 96 5% – – –% Mazda 15,694 15,420 2% – – –% Mitsubishi 4,170 4,730 –12% – – –% Nissan‡ 62,572 53,884 16% – – –% Porsche 1,786 1,658 8% – – –% Subaru 15,611 12,194 28% – – –% Suzuki 2,040 3,650 –44% – – –% Toyota‡‡ 98,796 117,287 –16% – – –% VW‡‡‡ 24,614 17,559 40% – – –% Other (estimate) 291 304 –4% – – –% TOTAL 698,990 657,209 6% – – –%

Numbers in this table are calculated by Automotive News based on actual monthly sales reported by the manufacturers and may differ from numbers reported elsewhere.
Source: Automotive News Data Center
Note: Other includes estimates for Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Lotus
*Includes Mini and Rolls-Royce
**Includes Maybach, Mercedes-Benz and Smart
***Includes Jaguar and Land Rover (through May 31, 2008) and Volvo
****Includes Saab
†Includes Honda Division and Acura
††Includes Hyundai and Kia
†††Tata Motors includes Jaguar and Land Rover as of June 1, 2008
‡Includes Nissan Division and Infiniti
‡‡Includes Toyota Division, Lexus and Scion
‡‡‡Includes VW, Audi and Bentley

JANUARY U.S. AUTO SALES

Ford sales rise 25% for 4th straight monthly increase; Subaru continues gains

Ford Motor Co. boosted U.S. sales 25 percent in January as analysts forecast industrywide gains over a deeply depressed month a year ago.

Ford sold 116,277 light vehicles last month, up from 93,044 units in January 2009. Subaru, the only brand with U.S. sales gains in each of the past two years, kicked off 2010 with a 28 percent jump.

Ford"s results marked a fourth straight monthly sales increase. The streak includes a 33 percent advance in December, which helped the automaker record its first rise in U.S. market share in 15 years.

Gains by Ford and Subaru and projected advances by other automakers may be overshadowed by the results from Toyota later today. The world"s biggest automaker was forecast to post a sharp drop in sales for January. On Jan. 26, Toyota halted U.S. sales of eight models following a Jan. 21 recall of 2.3 million vehicles tied to faulty accelerator pedals.

Shinichi Sasaki, the automaker"s vice president in charge of quality, said in Japan today that sales will likely take a hit. Analysts expect Toyota"s woes to boost sales and market shares for its largest competitors in the United States, including General Motors Co. GM, Ford, Chrysler Group and Hyundai all launched incentives last week aimed at luring Toyota customers.

Toyota"s sales shutdown will have a “significant” impact in the short term, with Toyota likely to lose a few percentage points of market share in February, said David Sargeant, vice president of automotive research at J.D.Power & Associates. Toyota Motor had a 17 percent U.S. market share for all of 2009, behind GM and ahead of Ford.

"The bigger issue is what"s the longer term impact on their reputation and how that will affect sales going forward," Sargeant said. "What we know is that Toyota"s sales are very heavily dependent on reputation for quality and safety."

Toyota said Monday it has found the remedy to fix potentially sticky accelerator pedals in the recalled vehicles, but the company said it is expected to take some time for dealers to complete repairs.

Forecasts

Ford projected its January market share at 16 percent, in line with its level for all of 2009.

Reuters said analysts and industry executives expect a January selling rate of 10.5 million to 11 million units on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, up from 9.8 million a year earlier. A Bloomberg poll of eight analysts put last month"s SAAR at 10.5 million.

Sales fell below the 10 million unit annualized rate in January 2009 for the first time in almost 30 years as unit sales fell 37 percent from a year earlier amid a deep economic downturn.

January results are expected to be down from the 11.9 million unit rate of December, when automakers posted a 15 percent sales increase from the prior year, supported by year-end incentives that helped drive retail sales. A total of 10.4 million light vehicles were sold in the U.S. last year, down from more than 17 million at the start of the decade.

“There"s no question that the worst is behind us,” Ford sales analyst George Pipas said before today"s results were released. “We"re into a period of expansion.”

“This is probably not going to be the kind of recovery that is nice and linear,” Pipas added. "We"re going to see fits and starts for the consumer."

GM sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni also forecast a double-digit increase in GM"s January U.S. sales, stronger than an estimated 5-10 percent rise for the industry.

A projected drop in January retail sales is likely to be offset by a strong rebound in fleet demand. Fleet sales were pummeled last year after financing dried up and businesses pulled back on spending in the wake of the U.S. banking bailout.

 

Source:  [Automotive News]

 

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