U.S. Sales: This Was A VERY Strong January
The U.S. new car market was up strongly in January. GM and Ford surprised analysts with double digit sales rates. Toyota, up 26.6 percent also surprised.
GM is up 16 percent on very strong sales of the Equinox and its Silverado and Sierra pickups.
Ford prints a 22 percent increase, powered by the Fusion. Lincoln sales are down 18 percent while customers wait for the MKZ to arrive in quantity at their dealers.
Chrysler was up 16 percent, but jaded analysts expected more.
Detroit OEMs and analysts expect the SAAR to be in the mid 15 million range
Final table ( data courtesy Automotive News)
January U.S. New Auto Sales
AutomakerJan. 2013Jan. 2012Pct. chng.1 monthBertel 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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Jaguar's not in trouble at all. Sales are climbing and they have plenty of product in development. Plus Land Rover is booming and is about to double the size of its range. At some point Land Rover has to make more regular passenger cars and in Jag has the right brand to do it. Once they merge their dealer network Jag will be able to feed off Land Rovers success much more. The future is very bright for both brands they just need to keep going with their current plan. Lincoln by contrast is screwed
Economic recovery? Or did it it take this long for the insurance companies to cut the checks for the quarter million cars that were washed into the Atlantic by Hurricane Sandy?