Detroit's October 2017 Sales: Ford Soars, Fiat Chrysler Hits the Brakes

If the Detroit Three want to keep wind in their sales sails, it sure won’t happen on the strength of traditional passenger cars.

Several brands from Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles posted U.S. sales declines in October 2017, all thanks to the slipping popularity of regular cars. In many cases, the continued strength of the crossover/SUV/truck market wasn’t enough to tip the scales back in the automakers’ favor.

Let’s start off at the top, because that’s where Ford Motor Company sits. The company’s Blue Oval brand recorded an October U.S. sales increase of 6.6 percent, year-over-year, though the same can’t be said for the Lincoln brand — the premium division’s sales sunk 1.8 percent compared to the same month last year. (Year-to-date sales are reversed, with Ford down 2.2 percent compared to 2016 and Lincoln still beating last year’s tally by 2.4 percent.)

So, where is the volume coming from?

Do you even have to guess? Overall FoMoCo car volume sunk 2.4 percent in October compared to a year prior, but SUV sales rose 5.3 percent. With a refreshed Ford F-150 and revamped Super Duty out for 2018, Ford truck sales shot up 11.4 percent.

Breaking it down even further, the pattern remains crystal clear. Fusion sales are down 6.2 percent, year-over-year, with sales over the first 10 months of 2017 dipping 22.6 percent from last year. The Taurus sank 5.4 percent in October. One bright spot is the Focus, which recorded a 7.8 percent increase. Still, this year’s Focus sales remain 10.4 percent lower than last year’s.

Lincoln saw its MKZ and Continental sedans record year-over-year drops 10.9 and 18.5 percent, respectively, in October. Meanwhile, Navigator sales rose 9.7 percent, the compact MKC crossover rose 10.3 percent, and the midsize MKX improved by 17.8 percent.

Over in Auburn Hills, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles saw overall sales sink by 13 percent. The mighty Jeep and Ram brands both lost 3 percent of their U.S. volume last month, compared to October 2016, while Chrysler dropped 22 percent. Fiat fell 33 percent. Dodge recorded a 41-percent drop in year-over-year sales. Only Alfa Romeo, something of a fledgling brand, saw its sales rise following the introduction of the Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV. With 1,205 vehicles sold in October, Alfa’s tally represented a 5,139 percent year-over-year increase.

Across the board, the only FCA models to see year-over-year sales increases in October were the Jeep Compass, Cherokee, and Renegade (up 81, 19, and 9 percent, respectively), the Dodge Charger and Durango (up 19 and 11 percent, respectively), the Ram pickup line (up 1 percent), the Fiat 500L (up 34 percent to a whopping 159 units), and the Alfa 4C (up 96 percent to 45 units). Of these vehicles, however, only the Renegade and Ram pickup closed out October with more year-to-date sales than in 2016, and only by a small margin.

At General Motors, the passenger car slump weighed heavily. With all GM divisions combining for a 2.2 percent year-over-year sales decrease, last month saw GMC become the only brand to increase its tally compared to October 2016. The truck-and-SUV-only division posted a sales increase of 4.6 percent, spurred by a 25.5-percent uptick in Sierra sales. Acadia sales rose modestly (5.2 percent), while Canyon sales rose 2.7 percent. This compensated for year-over-year losses with the Terrain, Yukon, and Yukon XL.

So far, GMC sales in 2017 are up 3.7 percent.

The same picture is not as rosy over at Chevrolet, which posted a 3.8-percent year-over-year dip. Despite sales increases of the Equinox crossover (up 28.5 percent) and the Silverado pickup line (up 6.8 percent), it wasn’t enough to keep the brand in the sales black. Sonic sales sank 66.4 percent, year-over-year, and Cruze sales plummeted 35 percent. The Malibu ended the month down 9.3 percent. In fact, and this goes against the industry’s grain, the only Chevrolet car to post a year-over-year sales gain in October was the full-size Impala, which rose 24.1 percent.

Over at Buick, sales sank 4.5 percent, year-over-year, in the month of October. While the imported-from-China Envision seems to have lost traction, slipping 2.3 percent, the redesigned Enclave and subcompact Encore crossovers soared by 30.4 and 25.2 percent, respectively. On the other side of the popularity coin, the LaCrosse sedan and soon-to-be-replaced Regal sank 43.7 and 40.5 percent, respectively. Sales of Buick brand vehicles are down 5.7 percent over the first 10 months of 2017.

Cadillac’s October volume almost equalled last October’s showing, falling short by 0.1 percent. While the popular XT5 crossover picked up steam (rising 19.5 percent, year-over-year), rear-drive sedan sales plummeted even further. The ATS dropped 41.7 percent, the CT6 flagship fell 39.5 percent, and the midsize CTS posted volume lower by 23.9 percent. Each model sold less than a thousand units in October.

However, as bad as those sedans performed, one four-door passenger car came reasonable close to outselling all three combined. The venerable front-drive XTS, recently spared from execution and refreshed for the 2018 model year, saw sales rise by 49.6 percent. Perhaps livery companies are stocking up?

It should be noted that October 2017 featured one less selling day than October 2016, which helps skew sales figures downward (though by how much, we don’t know).

[Images: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford, General Motors]