December a Mixed Month for Auto Sales
DETROIT ? Automakers ended a miserable year with a mixed December. The Ford Motor Company was the only one of the three domestic companies to report higher sales in the month.
Ford said Tuesday that its sales in the United States rose 33 percent in December from a year ago, making it the company?s best month since May
2008. Over all for the year, Ford?s sales fell 15 percent.Ford?s cross-town rival, General Motors, said its sales declined 6 percent in December, largely because of a 55 percent drop in sales by the four brands it was shutting down. Sales were up 2 percent at the four brands G.M. is keeping: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC.
G.M. said sales declined 30 percent for the year.
Chrysler also reported a sharp yearly decline, with sales for all of
2009 falling below one million for the first time since 1962, to 931,402 vehicles. Sales were down 4 percent in December and 36 percent on the year.Chrysler also announced more buyer incentives, including no-interest financing for almost all 2010 models.
Most other automakers said their sales increased last month. Compared with December 2008, sales were up 44 percent at Kia, 41 percent at Hyundai, 24 percent at Honda, 23 percent at Toyota, 18 percent at Nissan, 16 percent at Volkswagen, 9 percent at BMW and 8 percent at Mercedes.
Ford estimated that its market share rose 1 percentage point in 2009, to
15 percent. That would represent Ford?s first full-year share increase since 1995.?Ford?s plan is working,? Ken Czubay, Ford?s vice president for United States marketing, sales and service, said.
Shares of Ford, the only Detroit automaker to avoid bankruptcy, reached their highest level since 2005 on Tuesday, rising 6.6 percent to $10.95. They were worth as little as $1.50 in January 2009.
Automakers expect the year ahead to be much less turbulent than 2009, when both G.M. and Chrysler borrowed billions of dollars from the federal government before filing for bankruptcy protection, though sales are expected to improve only modestly.
Sales were ?very strong at the end of the month,? said Ford?s chief sales analyst, George Pipas, an indication that the industry might enter
2010 with some positive momentum.In another sign that better days are on the horizon, the industry?s seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate has been rising steadily for several months, ending 2009 at about 11.5 million vehicles. For all of
2009, automakers sold about 10.4 million light vehicles, G.M. and Ford estimated.?Excluding the ?cash-for-clunkers? months, this would constitute the strongest sales rate since September 2008, suggesting the industry is witnessing a real improvement in underlying demand for U.S. autos which bodes well for 2010,? Brian A. Johnson, an automotive analyst with Barclays Capital, wrote in a recent note to clients.
G.M. projected that the industry would sell 11 million to 12 million vehicles in the United States this year, while Ford made a slightly more optimistic forecast, ranging from 11.5 million to 12.5 million.
?If things progress like they have been the last four months, we?ll probably be at the higher end of that range, closer to 12? million, said Michael C. DiGiovanni, G.M.?s chief market analyst. But Mr. DiGiovanni said G.M. would still be able to succeed if sales are at the lower end of the forecast.
?We?re planning our business for both contingencies,? he said.
The industry has considerable ground to make up before its sales will approach the levels seen only a few years ago. Sales in the United States were down 24 percent in the first 11 months of 2009, putting it on track to be the worst year in at least 27 years.
Sales would have been even more dismal but for the government?s ?cash-for-clunkers? program, which gave credits of up to $4,500 to new-vehicle buyers who turned in an older, less-efficient car or truck to be destroyed. The program, which started in late July, burned through $3 billion in about a month.
Only three automakers ? Hyundai and Kia, which are affiliated in South Korea, and Subaru ? sold more vehicles in 2009 than they did in 2008. Those companies each set new sales records in 2009.