Detroit Losing Market Share

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: July 5th, 2012

As much as managers of car companies love double digit increases such as the 22 percent overall gain in June, there is one aspect they really hate: When the market share charts come on the table. Market share measures the true performance of sales and engineering. If the damn market increases 22 percent, then your sales must increase 23 percent, just to stay ahead of the game. Managers of Detroit car companies eye these charts with trepidation.

Share Jun 12Share Jun 11ChangeShare YTD 12Share YTD 11ChangeGeneral Motors19.35%20.44%-1.09%18.09%19.92%-1.83%Ford Motor Co.16.12%18.36%-2.24%15.68%16.89%-1.21%Toyota13.83%10.53%3.30%14.39%12.83%1.55%Chrysler Group11.26%11.43%-0.17%11.47%10.10%1.36%Honda9.71%7.96%1.74%9.64%9.59%0.05%Hyundai Group8.96%9.90%-0.94%8.87%8.97%-0.09%Nissan7.18%6.83%0.34%7.94%7.97%-0.03%Volkswagen3.97%3.67%0.30%3.78%3.33%0.45%BMW Group2.16%2.55%-0.39%2.18%2.27%-0.09%Subaru2.15%1.88%0.28%2.26%2.09%0.17%Daimler AG1.98%2.17%-0.20%1.96%1.90%0.06%Mazda1.55%1.83%-0.28%1.98%1.93%0.05%Volvo Cars NA0.55%0.67%-0.12%0.48%0.57%-0.10%Mitsubishi0.42%0.79%-0.37%0.45%0.70%-0.24%Jaguar Land Rover0.36%0.43%-0.07%0.38%0.37%0.00%Porsche0.23%0.24%-0.01%0.23%0.25%-0.02%Suzuki0.18%0.22%-0.04%0.18%0.21%-0.03%Other0.02%0.02%0.00%0.02%0.02%0.00%Maserati0.02%0.02%0.00%0.02%0.02%0.00%

GM’s market share has been eroding steadily, however, the pace of the decline is not as fast as it used to be. More worrisome is Ford. Its share was slightly above 16 percent in June, and slightly below 16 percent for the first six months of the year. Chrysler’s outrageous percentage sales gains suddenly look in a different light when market share comes into play.

Why are they losing? Because the others are gaining, simple as that. Honda and especially Toyota is on a roll. Toyota and Ford will trade places if that trend continues.

Bertel Schmitt

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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Bd2 on Jul 05, 2012

Toyota has seen the most growth for the year due to launches of new products like the Camry, ES and GS; as well as gorging on fleet sales for the 1st 5 months of the year (15% of sales went to fleet). GM and Ford should see sales growth later in the year as they launch their new models in the all-important mid-size sedan segment (with the non-Eco Malibu, XTS and ATS - GM should see a good rise in its sedan sales).

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Zoom on Jul 05, 2012

Why the focus on "Detroit"? Isn't "Detroit" just Ford and GM now? Does it really matter how "Detroit" does compared to everyone else? Content percentage and final assembly location is a much greater measurement of whether a company is a "Detroit" (U.S.) comapny or not. I don't know the percentages, but Ford and GM seem to be building a lot of cars in Mexico and Canada.

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- Dynamic88 on Jul 07, 2012
  
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