American April Auto Sales Anticipated As Amazing
Speaking of April sales, American automakers and industry watchers are expecting a jump of nearly Chinese proportions when April sales will be announced on Monday. Easy: We are comparing with an April of 2009, when everybody assumed we’ll never buy a car again.
A Thomson Reuters poll of 12 economists sees U.S. April auto sales to rise more than 20 percent for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 11.4 million units. In April 2009, SAAR stood at 9.3 million.
Bloomberg goes out on a limb and predicts that Chrysler may post a 15 percent plus, reflecting its biggest monthly gain since 2005.
The consensus of analysts polled by Bloomberg agrees with the Reuters poll. Bloomberg’s oracles predict a whopping 34 percent rise for Toyota, a jump of 28 percent for Ford, and a tepid 7.2 percent increase for GM.
Honda is predicted to be up 15 percent, Nissan is presaged to skrocket by 57 percent. Hyundai may increase 35 percent.
However, the annualized sales rate is a far cry from the 16m before the recession, a number that may not be reached anytime soon.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I wonder if some brilliant mechanic will come up with a good way to replace defunct CVT's with regular automatic trannies or even 5- or 6-speed manuals. I'd think there would be a market.
I feel sorry for the view that poor dog just got. Even getting run over by that Dodge Caliber would be preferable.
If sales are as good as expected it will be another indicator that economic recovery is slowly but surely coming.
Two of my family members traded their just-out-of-warranty GM vehicles on Nissans last month, one for a Pathfinder the other and a Maxima. Both of them bought in 08' before GM went belly up and became Government Motors. Ever since BK, they have nothing good to say about the failed-now-government entity in which they supported back then. Major, Major buyers remorse. GM has lost two more customers for good.