April Sales: Detroit Up By Double Digits
Detroit delivers on the double digit growth rates predicted by auto analysts for April.
- GM sales rose 11 percent in April
- Ford Motor is up 18 percent
- Chrysler Group sales rose 11 percent
Nissan received a much needed boost and is up 23 percent.
Volkswagen, in need of new product, lost 10 percent (for Volkswagen alone, sans Audi.);
Check in with TTAC as we update April sales results throughout the day,
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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You say VW needs new product, and I certainly agree that they need a new Tiguan but the Passat must be a disappointment for them with 9000 sales, down from 10K last year and the car is only 1.5 years old. Newer than Sonata and Optima, the same age as Camry and only a little older than Altima and Fusion. All of which are doing well. The Passat has not gone much above 10000 units month which must be below expectations since the Jetta managed 15K. They have sufficient product to have grown at least in line with the market instead of being down 0.5% YTD in a market growing about 10% so far. As BS has said before, not keeping up with the market means you are losing share. From anecdotal evidence I know one colleague who was set on getting a Passat TDi, then saw how expensive that was (with auto) at $28K. So looked at the gasoline model, but was disappointed by the 32mpg highway rating. So instead she got an Altima, this was in March this year. One other interesting fact for VW - they sold 3 Routans in the US (but 32 in Canada!) and they have at least 180 in stock (cars.com) so they have plenty of supply!
Fusion seems to be doing very well. To me it seems to be easily the most conspicuous of the remodels, which probably magnifies its presence.
The Lincoln Cimarron was up by 115% and set an all time monthly sales record (pretty pathetic when 4k sales is a all time record). Time will tell, but this is most likely a flash in the pan. All the backed up deliveries from the severely botched launch and quality issues. Other than that, another fleet heavy month for Ford. Chrysler though, did fantastic. Nice to see their quality products doing well.
GM has steadily gone downhill since the duPont divestiture and the reason is lousy management, particularly since the old man died. the problem is not the product, we make great cars. it's the marketing, the way we treat customers before and after the purchase. bottom line, GM just doesn't get it.