U.S. auto sales drop 37% to another low
>
> Chrissie Thompson
> Automotive News
> February 3, 2009 - 12:20 pm ET
> UPDATED: 2/3/09 7:00 p.m. ET
>
> U.S. auto sales dropped 37.1 percent in January, dragged down by the
> Detroit 3, as the industry posted its lowest monthly total in 27 > years.
>
> Ford Motor Co.'s 41.6 percent fall and General Motors' 49 percent
> drop were steeper than analysts' forecasts. Chrysler tumbled more
> than 50 percent for the second straight month. Honda, Nissan and
> Toyota all slipped more than 27 percent, cementing the industry's
> fourth straight monthly slide of more than 30 percent.
I little back-up - Ford's decline includes the the loss of Jaguar and Land Rover (they were counted in the 2008 totals, not counted in
2009). This inflates Ford decrease by about 3%. If you just look at Ford
/ Lincoln / Mercury sales, the decrease is about 39%.
Toyota did the worst of the Japanese companies with a 31.7% decline. Not sure why the article spelled out the Ford and GM declines, and then just said all the big Japanese companies declines by more than
27%. It seems like they should have highlighted them individually as well (Honda down 27.9%, Nissan down 29.7%).
......
Fleet factor
>
> The biggest reasons for the decline in last month's sales rate was
> the fleet market, said Ford sales analyst George Pipas. "We estimate
> the industry fleet sales were down 65 or more percent from a year > ago."
>
> Ford said its sales to individual customers fell 27 percent. The
> two-thirds drop in fleet includes a 90 percent decline in sales to > rental companies.
I thought all the US companies were trying to eliminate "no-profit" fleet sales. It seems they were successful.
Ford's re-engineered F-150 pickup gained retail market share in
> January, the automaker said. But total F-series sales fell 38.6 > percent in January.
Not a big surprise.
Ed