#August2012

Yes it is that time of the month, the time for our acclaimed monthly rendezvous: the World Roundup, now in its 6th instalment.

Last month all eyes were on Ukraine where the Geely CK notched the top spot in a world first for a Chinese manufacturer in a large export market. In August, Switzerland, Brazil and Denmark are the epicenters of world car sales.

You can check out previous world Roundups here for March 2012 (“Has the Hybrid era started for good?”), here for April 2012 (“Big change coming from India”), here for May 2012 (“GM and Toyota Etios make headlines”) and here for June 2012 (“Geely CK writes history in Ukraine“).

Enough of the world and you just want to know which cars sell best in your own backyard? Easy. You can visit 168 countries and territories in my blog, one by one, in the comfort of your own lounge. Yes sir.

Back to our Roundup.

Volkswagen announced global Group sales for August, and they are a whopping 18.9 percent over August 2011. For the first eight months of the year, Volkswagen Group deliveries are 10.2 percent ahead of what VW delivered in the same period last year. With all the bad news from Europe, how can a European car company deliver such good numbers, you ask?

“China’s auto sales growth falls to 3.7 percent ” if you read the Associated Press and Bloomberg. If you rather put your trust in Reuters, then “vehicle sales in China rose 8.3 percent in August from a year earlier.” Reuters is correct, AP and Bloomberg just received a new degree in spin doctoring.

Germany hasn’t seen the double digit sales losses of other EU countries, but it isn’t walking on water either. August sales in Germany were down 4.7 percent on 226,455 units, says the KBA. For the first eight months of the year, sales in Germany now are 0.6 percent below the same period of the prior year.

August sales numbers caught analysts by surprise. They had expected a strong August, but they did not aim high enough. All but Jessica Caldwell of Edmunds.

Now that we have the August numbers for the world’s second largest car market, attention turns to the world’s largest, China. The Chinese economy is cooling down. Has it hit car sales? Official numbers won’t be here until next week, but our patent=pending China sales oracle has spoken.

Volkswagen and Toyota join Chrysler in delivering better than expected numbers for August as our table starts to populate.

Sales Forecasts August 2012Forecast TrueCarForecast KelleyUnitsYoYShareUnitsYoYShareChrysler142,5939.60%11.4%142,6009.60%11.2%Ford191,4569.50%15.3%191,6009.60%15.1%GM227,0873.90%18.1%225,9503.40%17.7%Honda133,45862.10%10.6%129,45057.30%10.2%Hyundai/Kia117,21217.60%9.3%119,66220.00%9.4%Nissan97,0226.00%7.7%105,00014.70%8.2%Toyota182,89641.30%14.6%176,95036.70%13.9%Volkswagen47,06932.80%3.7%53,50050.50%4.2%Industry1,255,39217.20%100.0%1,273,00018.70%100.0%

When U.S. August sales numbers will be announced next week, TrueCar expects them to be up strongly. The Santa Monica forecaster predicts August new light vehicle sales to be in the neighborhood of 1,255,392 units, up 17.2 percent from August 2011. TrueCar’s forecast would translate into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (“SAAR”) of 14.2 million new car sales, up from 12.1 million in August 2011.