January Sales Up 11 Percent
Kelley Blue Book was right when, a week ago, it predicted that 900,000 cars would be sold in January. It was 913,284, up 11 percent over January 2011. The SAAR, or seasonally adjusted average rate (= if the rest of the year would be as good as January, how much for the year?) climbed to 14.2 million.
GM saw its first minus since May last year. They said it’s because of a strong January 2011. Automotive News [sub] says that “a year ago, GM’s sales were aided by generous discounts.”
Chrysler (+44 percent), Mazda (+68%) and Volkswagen (+40 percent) surprised. BMW (+ 6 percent) and Mercedes (+ 23 percent) handed in their homework on time.
AutomakerJan. 2012Jan. 2011Pct. chng.1 monthData courtesy Automotive News [sub]
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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Land Rover up a whopping 41 %. Tut tut Ford for selling JLR is growing faster than BMW now in the most profitable sector of the Market!
I have been perusing small car ratings at Consumer Reports Online. Two models of the Chevy Cruze and two versions of the Chevy Aveo have the lowest reliability ratings in their categories. As usual, the Jap cars did much better, as did Hyundais. The Volkswagen Golf TDI did surprising well, though, with pretty good reliability and great mileage.