May Car Sales Show Ford and GM Recovering While Honda and Toyota Slump
Results may be a product of last year's high gas prices
Car sales for the month of May appear to show a certain level of recovery – at least for U.S. automakers Ford and General Motors.
Ford posted a loss of 28.5 percent, its best result since July of 2008. As for GM, it declined “just” 29 percent marking its best monthly performance since September.
In total, auto sales in the U.S. were down 33.7 percent, the smallest drop since the recession really got going in October.
Helping to bring the national average down were Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda, which suffered 40.7 and 41.5 percent sales declines respectively.
Jeff Schuster of J.D. Power & Associates attributes the larger declines for Honda and Toyota more to the unusually high sales both companies saw in May 2008. During that period Honda actually set a monthly sales record as skyrocketing gas prices saw consumers turning away from domestic automakers to buy fuel-efficient imports.
Compared to 2007, in 2008 Honda and Toyota saw increases of 15.6 and 4.3 percent, while Ford and GM fell 15.9 and 27.5 percent.
Meanwhile Chrysler’s sales were understandably low as the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the 1st of May. Sales were down 46.9 percent, despite some industry experts claiming that dealership liquidation sales would provide a boost in sales.
That bump may yet occur, and may now include sales of General Motors vehicles. The drastically reduced inventory is also expected to have the most impact on U.S. automaker Ford, which plans to launch strong incentive programs to attract consumers interested in domestic products.
[Source: Automotive News]
Full sales numbers for all automakers in the U.S. after the jump:
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