U.S. Car Sales Up 8.3% in Month but Analysts Say Slump Possible
DETROIT — Despite a sharp drop in the purchase of imports, U.S. car sales rose 8.3% in October compared to a year ago, the auto industry reported Thursday.
Auto industry analysts warned, however, that the gains over last year masked a real weakness in the market, adding that the industry could be heading for a slump.
The analysts said the period’s rosy increase on a percentage basis was misleading, because sales were disastrous at the same time last year, in the days following the stock market crash of Oct. 19, 1987. The crash helped make last October the slowest in six years.
“A year ago was a real disaster, so the year-to-year comparisons aren’t really relevant,” said John Hammond, an auto industry analyst with J. D. Power & Associates, an automotive market research firm in Agoura Hills.
“The stock market crash did affect the auto market fairly significantly in the first month after the crash, he added.”
The auto industry said Thursday that it sold 831,615 passenger cars in October, up from 797,272 sold in October, 1987.
The domestic auto manufacturers accounted for all of the gain during the month. They reported that their sales for the month rose 16.9%, while the imports slid 8.2%.
Still, the domestic sales represented a sluggish annual pace of just 6.7 million sales. That’s off from the 7.5 million annual rate the domestics have set for most of 1988.
Hammond said the lower annual rate indicates that the auto makers may be in for a period of slower sales. “The information that we have been picking up from (dealers) indicates that sales showed a weakening trend,” he said. “There could be a slowing, not inconsistent with what we’ve been seeing in the general economic picture.”
AUTO SALES
October Percent Auto Maker 1988 change GM 78,097 +12.2 Ford 179,903 +29.3 Chrysler 84,373 +13.3 Honda U.S. 32,713 +21.1 Nissan U.S. 5,618 -28.7 Toyota U.S. 5,958 +50.2 Mazda U.S. 3,153 +2,026.1 DOMESTIC 589,815 +16.9 Toyota Imp. 57,797 +8.4 Nissan Imp. 20,803 -34.7 Honda Imp. 34,073 -18.6 Mazda 16,405 -16.4 Subaru 15,194 -11.2 VW Imp. 12,637 -12.2 Volvo 8,048 +30.3 Hyundai 16,232 +18.6 Mitsubishi 4,827 -3.5 Others* 55,784 +3.4 IMPORTS* 241,800 -8.2 Total U.S. 831,615 +8.3
Percentage changes in auto sales for the October are based on daily rates rather than total sales volume. There were 26 selling days in the current period and 27 in the year-ago period.
