Ford, Toyota Post Sharp Drop in Sales
Ford, Toyota post sharp drop in Sales
GM said it will start its annual “Red Tag” sale on Tuesday rather than in mid-November, as is customary. GM will offer as much as $8,500 off select 2008 and 2009 models, according to a dealer who listened to a GM broadcast outlining the sale.
A drop-off in personal spending tied to economic woes and the credit crunch kept buyers out of U.S. showrooms for much of the month, even as auto makers boosted incentives to spur sales and once sky-high gas prices collapsed to a nationwide average of about $2.65 a gallon.
Ford, in reporting its results, referred to “an economic gauntlet, the likes of which haven’t been seen in more than two decades.”
Toyota, the second-largest auto seller in the U.S. behind GM, reported light-vehicle sales of 152,101. There were 27 selling days in October — one more than a year earlier.
It was Toyota’s sixth-straight month of sales drops, reflecting how the Japanese giant has been suffering from the same forces that have battered its Detroit-based rivals despite its strong lineup of fuel-efficient passenger cars.
In October, Toyota’s Camry car failed to outsell Ford’s F-150 pickup truck, trailing 30,556 to 43,324, as Camry sales fell 9.4%. The last two weeks of the month saw buyers starting to warm up again to gas-guzzling pickups and sport utility vehicles because of bargain prices.
The last several months have seen a seesaw battle between the Camry, Toyota’s Corolla, two cars from Honda Motor Co. and the F-150, a mainstay of Ford’s product line, for the status of top-selling U.S. vehicle. The Corolla racked up 27,386 sales, up 6.1%.
Toyota, which is battling GM for the crown of the world’s best-selling auto maker, said passenger car sales fell 15%, while sport-utility sales slumped 29%. Light-truck sales dropped 34%.
Toyota division sales fell 21%, and Lexus recorded a 35% decline.
For Toyota, the last five years have seen particularly rapid sales growth, as the company expanded in the U.S. and other overseas markets. But the past year has delivered more bad news for the auto industry than anyone imagined, making it difficult for Toyota and other auto makers to use emerging-market sales to offset huge U.S. losses.
Ford reported light-vehicle sales of 132,248 as Ford, Lincoln and Mercury car sales dropped 27%. Ford truck and van sales fell 19%, with SUV sales tumbling 54% and F-series truck sales dropping 16%. Last week, Ford announced it plans to recall more than 1,000 laid-off workers to accelerate production of the redesigned F-150. Some 3,000 of the 2009 models were sold last month as the vehicles begin their rollout to showrooms.
Sales of the Edge “crossover” vehicle fell 39%. The car-based wagon — designed to look and function like an SUV but boasting modestly better fuel economy — has seen waning demand as consumers flock to cars that are less expensive and more efficient.
The Focus, a hot-selling small car, saw an 18% decrease. Ford sales analyst George Pipas had said recently that small cars were on track to have the highest share of the October market, accounting for 23% of overall U.S. sales. October was also poised to mark the first time since 2000 that passenger cars and crossovers outsell pickups and SUVs.
In general, U.S. auto sales were expected to tumble about 29% in October to their lowest level in nearly 17 years, according to car-shopping Web site Edmunds.com. And November, traditionally one of the year’s weakest sales months, is forecast to be “terrible,” Edmunds added. The latest results come on the heels of a September that saw double-digit sales declines from all major auto makers and the slowest sales pace in 15 years.
Source: online.wsj.com
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