By The Numbers: September Sales Fall Like Leaves
September wasn't kind to the auto industry. Total U.S. light vehicle sales ended the month 2.9 percent below September 2006. The year-to-date (YTD) news wasn't very encouraging either; sales for the first nine months of 2007 are 2.8 percent below the same time last year. Of The Big 2.8, only GM finished the month (barely) in the black. Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota all posted declines compared with last September. Looking at our four-wheeled sampler, separating the winners from the losers is a matter of seeing who lost less.
Passenger Cars
The bad news: Chevy's Impala dropped about 1800 sales from August. The good news: the sales stalwart's up six percent compared to September last year; up 13.9 percent YTD. Chrysler's once-mighty 300 ain't so mighty no mo'. September sales dropped 13.2 percent, while annual sales fell 14.9 percent. Fusion sales offered Ford a glimmer of hope, rising 9.6 percent for the month, racking-up a 1.3 percent gain for the year. Toyota's killer Camry continues its sales growth, up 5.7 percent on the month and 7.1 percent for the year.
Pickup Trucks
Rebates reigned supreme. Despite slapping more cash on the hood and even more generous financing incentives, Chevy Silverado sales rose just one percent for the month. YTD, sales are down 1.9 percent. Dodge is also throwing cash at Ram buyers, which helped jack-up sales by 20 percent. Annual sales are up just 0.6, but it's still a victory (of sorts). Smaller cash rebates and not-quite-so-cut-rate financing aren't helping Ford's F-Series; sales were off a whopping 20.8 percent, running 12.9 percent total behind last year. Toyota revived its incentive campaigns on the Tundra, sending the texas-built pickup on its way to meeting its first-year sales goal of 200k units. Tundra sales rose 55.2 percent for the month and 57.9 percent YTD.
Truck-Based SUVs
Although Chevy's Tahoe sales for the month leaped by an amazing 52.2 percent (fleets?), YTD sales slipped 9.2 percent. Dodge's Durango's sales are MIA, sinking a titanic 49.6 percent; it'down 29.8 percent YTD. The Ford Explorer was almost as lost, dropping 31.9 percent, losing 24.2 percent YTD. Toyota's not immune to the SUV exodus: 4Runner sales sank 2.7 percent, down 16.8 percent YTD.
CUVs
New Models
Overall, GM's Lambda triplets (Acadia, Enclave, Outlook) racked-up over 12k sales in September. GMC's Acadia, up 800 units from August, continues to be the most popular of GM's Lambda CUVs. The Ford Edge continues edging-up from its drastic drop in July, with an increase of 1500 sales over August. Jeep's Compass wasn't so fortunate. It dropped 800 sales from August.
Total Sales
The Future
As the 2007 model year winds down– with the usual clearance sales and the '08 models flooding into the showrooms– GM begins the new year with a new UAW contract. Under the new agreement, they're sure to force encourage a lot of their experienced workers to retire, resulting in a large labor turnover. What impact these changes will have on production, prices or quality remains to be seen. All three domestic automakers are saying the new union contracts will give them parity with Toyota and the other transplants. How quickly this will translate into better designs and an improved product– if at all– anyone's guess.
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"I’ll be the first one to say the same thing about Saturn one year from now if they haven’t turned the tide with their full line makeover." I don't think that Saturn has enough remaining mindshare to really drive sales increases. Their first generation enthusiasts were driven away by a long of tooth product line followed by a horrible makeover (Ion) and then followed by a complete submersion into the Borg. Sticking Saturn with a version of the horrible GM minivan for a few years probably didn't help either. Now Saturn has a few competitive vehicles, but with their avoidance of the incentive marketing game and the fact that more and more of their target market have already become loyal Toyota or Honda customers they aren't going to get enough consideration to move the needle. Oddly enough, if the new Saturns are as good as some say, the thing to do would be to seed them into the rental fleets in order to expose potential customers to the brand. The vast majority of the US car buying public doesn't give Saturn a thought. They don't have the history or loyalty factors of a Chevrolet or Ford and they lack the modern attention Honda and Toyota get. No history, no modern buzz and GM-like resale values. The thrill of paying full sticker for a new GM car has pretty much worn off! It isn't really "all about the product" as so many people like to say. Great product is the ante to get into the game, but having the ante doesn't make an automatic winner.