Domestic Automakers' Market Share Slips to 47.1%

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

The U.S. automotive industry's '07 retail sales stats are in, and the Detroit Free Press pronounces Ford the biggest loser. The Blue Oval Boyz' share of the American new car market sank from 15.1 percent in 2006 to 14.2 percent last year. As the Freep's Sarah H. Webster points out, that's better than the '06 decline: a two percentage point drop. But she also notes (further down in the piece) that "Ford's decline, though, is also noteworthy as Ford's incentives, as estimated by Autodata Corp., a private firm in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., remain among the highest in the industry. Ford offered an average of $4,001 in discounts on its cars and trucks last year." We also learn that Chrysler and GM's market share held steady, Toyota lost a fraction of a percentage point and the Big 2.8's combined share of the U.S. market dropped a full percentage point. Heading into a down market, it remains to be seen if the truck-heavy domestics can hold the line.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • George Labrador George Labrador on Feb 01, 2008

    That,s why most Canadians including myself prefer to buy Used Cars, after we make sure they have not come from a Flood area like the Southern USA and also have them checked by a independent Garage before signing anything. Today Toyota here in Ontario announced that they were slashing prices on New Vehicles due to the continuing power of the Canadian dollar which today was again above parity with the US Dollar.

  • Johnster Johnster on Feb 01, 2008

    red dawg, your co-worker was low-balled. Although we don't know the specifics of her car, the mileage and options, etc, a plain Mustang V-6 coupe with an automatic and no other options is listed as having a Trade-In value of between $11,000 in fair condition to just over $13,000 in excellent condition. Still pretty fair depreciation, though. She needs to take her business somewhere else. I knew a woman who was car-jacked in a Lexus. After that, she bought a Toyota Camry, which she thinks is more low-key and less likely to be a target. With the price of gas being what it is, it will be interesting to see if thieves start stealing more economy cars. It seems like Civics and Corollas are already popular with thieves.

  • EJ_San_Fran EJ_San_Fran on Feb 01, 2008

    So what are everybody's retail market shares? The article says 14.1% for Ford and 22% for GM. What about the others?

  • EJ_San_Fran EJ_San_Fran on Feb 01, 2008

    I found some other retail market share numbers for 2007, from CMCDA: Toyota 18.5% Honda 11.7% Chrysler 10.7% Nissan 7.3% Hyundai 2.9% In California Toyota had 28.4% retail share.

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