This was the Ooops month, previously called August. Before you get a heart attack from looking at the numbers, keep in mind that they are comparing with “Crazy August” of 2009, U.S. light vehicle sales were driven nearly up to the good old days of 2008 by Cash for Clunkers, only to drop 23 percent the next month. What we see this month is a flashback of the withdrawal effects of 2009. All of this had (hopefully) been factored-in by analysts, but the numbers are coming in worse than expected.
If you don’t want to be sidetracked by the base effect of one crazy month, look at the rightmost column for the bigger picture: Up a bit for the year, but not by a whole lot.
The following list is complete. All precincts have reported.Overall, analysts polled by Bloomberg expect an August SAAR of 11.6m. Today’s declines reported by GM and Ford were worse than analysts expected. J.D. Power expects the August SAAR to come in at 11.4m, says Automotive News [sub]. Sales to individual customers “slowed considerably” in the last week of August, says J.D. Power. Also, customers may be holding out for Labor Day deals. This would benefit September sales. Expect to see great percentage numbers in September, as we compare with a cold-turkey September in 2009.
U.S. light vehicle sales, August 2010
Final list
| Automaker | Aug. 2010 | Aug. 2009 | Pct. chng. | 8 month 2010 |
8 month 2009 |
Pct. chng. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW Group | 23,991 | 24,370 | -2% | 169,148 | 160,260 | 6% |
| Chrysler Group |
99,611 | 93,222 | 7% | 720,140 | 653,319 | 10% |
| Daimler AG | 20,133 | 18,749 | 7% | 149,134 | 130,149 | 15% |
| Ford Motor Co. | 157,327 | 181,826 | -14% | 1,308,887 | 1,119,863 | 17% |
| General Motors | 185,105 | 245,550 | -25% | 1,462,308 | 1,381,224 | 6% |
| Honda (American) | 108,729 | 161,439 | -33% | 815,075 | 806,907 | 1% |
| Hyundai Group | 86,068 | 100,665 | -15% | 601,444 | 527,653 | 14% |
| Isuzu | – | – | -% | – | 165 | -100% |
| Jaguar Land Rover | 3,958 | 3,160 | 25% | 28,581 | 23,953 | 19% |
| Maserati | 161 | 129 | 25% | 1,328 | 890 | 49% |
| Mazda | 19,739 | 26,542 | -26% | 156,190 | 145,955 | 7% |
| Mitsubishi | 4,293 | 6,813 | -37% | 36,431 | 38,127 | -4% |
| Nissan | 76,827 | 105,312 | -27% | 599,496 | 524,903 | 14% |
| Porsche | 2,032 | 1,526 | 33% | 15,719 | 12,729 | 24% |
| Saab Cars North America | 290 | – | -% | 1,498 | – | -% |
| Subaru | 22,239 | 28,683 | -23% | 172,182 | 143,828 | 20% |
| Suzuki | 1,830 | 5,748 | -68% | 15,331 | 31,664 | -52% |
| Toyota | 148,388 | 225,088 | -34% | 1,164,154 | 1,170,407 | -1% |
| Volkswagen | 32,118 | 32,981 | -3% | 239,011 | 195,593 | 22% |
| Volvo Cars North America | 4,441 | – | -% | 4,441 | – | -% |
| Other (estimate) | 294 | 307 | -4% | 2,352 | 2,449 | -4% |
| TOTAL | 997,574 | 1,262,110 | –21% | 7,662,850 | 7,070,038 | 8% |
Data courtesy Automotive News [sub]
Some notes:
BMW includes Mini and Rolls-Royce
Daimler includes Maybach, Mercedes-Benz and Smart
Ford includes Volvo through July 2010, but not for August, as the Volvo sale to Geely closed on August 2nd
GM includes Saab through February 2010
Honda includes Acura
Nissan includes Infiniti
Toyota includes Lexus and Scion
Volkswagen includes Audi and Bentley
Wow! Chrysler went UP.
Good work fella…
“Hyundai includes Acura”
Probably ment to say Honda includes Acura and that Hyundai includes Kia.
True. Sorry
The funniest part of this whole thing is Porsche outselling Suzuki,to date.
Hyundai Group is down 15%?
I’m surprised.
The way the blogosphere has been rhapsodizing about the Sonata in particular and anything Hyundai or Kia in general in recent months, I expected their sales to be up by at least 150%
Must be limited capacity.
Honda is down 33%. Maybe it’s finally time to do us all a favor and send Mr. Opportunity to cartoon heaven.
The August to August numbers are meaningless, Cash for Clunkers made last August absolutely crazy. Of course things are down for August 2010, especially for brands like Honda that scored big on C4C. The fact that they’re only up 1% for the year is a bit concerning, but when you consider they’re still ahead of last year without the C4C boost, they don’t look too bad.
As for Hyundai, they were a big C4C winner too and they’re still substantially ahead of last year. But it is interesting that their growth for the year is lagging several other established brands.
Dinner time dumpster diving rates likely increased to at the least counter the decrease in conveyance sales.
Recession? Nah!!!!!
Welcome to the depression, Herd.
I suppose I’m ok with depression, hyperinflation, and thermonuclear war if we can finally get rid of GM.
To state the obvious: Suzuki is in serious trouble in the US market, and may go the way of Fiat circa 1983. They are a huge carmaker who can’t get any traction in the US – interesting and sad.
Suzuki and Mitsubishi are toast.
The Maserati, Daimler and Porsche numbers tell you that the well off are doing just fine, thank you very much.