GM, Ford Sales Decline in U.S.
U.S. automakers posted mixed March U.S. sales Monday with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. losing traction against fast-growing Asian competitors.
GM’s U.S. sales were down 14.6%, the biggest slide since October, while Ford’s overall sales were down 4.6% last month from a year earlier, hurt by sluggish sport utility vehicle sales.
The declines at Ford and GM, both of which plan to shutter factories and cut blue-collar workers in sweeping restructuring programs, cast another shadow over Detroit’s struggling automakers as they grapple with brutal competition on their home ground.
DaimlerChrysler’s Chrysler unit was the lone Detroit automaker to post a sales rise of 2%.
Ford and GM have seen a protracted sales decline, losing to more nimble companies such as Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp., which reported its best-ever monthly sales in March.
Toyota said customer purchases rose 6.9% last month compared with March 2005.
Honda Motor Co.’s sales were up 0.2%, with its increase led by strong sales of its redesigned Civic. Honda sold 28,969 Civics last month, a 14% gain.
Nissan Motor Co.’s March sales fell 2.6%. Nissan’s sales fell about 1,000 each for its Altima and Maxima models, the company’s best-selling sedans, said U.S. sales chief Jed Connelly. He said sales of the Infiniti luxury division declined about 12%.
And South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. said its U.S. sales rose 4.3% last month. Hyundai, which is seventh in U.S. sales, sold 17,487 Sonata mid-size sedans, a record for the model, and 2,401 of its new Azera large sedan.
The lower sales at GM and Ford probably contributed to an industrywide drop for March, according to analysts and economists surveyed. GM and Ford sought to reduce sales to fleet customers, which generate little or no profit. Their North American auto operations have lost money as Toyota and other Asian rivals captured more market share.
“That is going to directly affect their numbers,” Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Mass., said of Detroit-based GM and Ford.
Ford’s chief sales analyst said the automaker was making progress toward stabilizing its market share.
“We’re not there yet, but we are reducing the rate of decline, and that’s our goal in 2006,” said George Pipas, who expected that Ford’s market share in March would be flat to down a little.
The sales results came as U.S. automakers dialed up their spending on sales incentives last month, according to an industry tracking firm.
Toyota’s top U.S. executive, Jim Press, said in an interview that new vehicles -- the Rav4 and FJ Cruiser SUVs, the redesigned Camry and the new Yaris subcompact car -- drove sales gains.
Toyota sold 1,339 Yaris cars in March even though the model made its debut in dealerships only mid-month. “The initial response to it is much greater than we thought,” Press said.
One key for GM is the strength of sales of its 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe and Yukon sport utility vehicles, the first in a revamped series of large SUVs that are central to the automaker’s turnaround strategy. Tahoe sales were up 41% compared with February sales and up 20% versus a year earlier. Yukon’s sales were more than double its sales in February, GM said.
“We’re not pleased with our sales decline, but it’s important for us to improve the quality of our sales,” GM sales analyst Paul Ballew said. GM’s sales to corporate fleets accounted for 25% of March sales and 30% for the quarter, the company said.
In a bright spot for Ford, its trio of new cars launched last fall -- Fusion, Milan and Zephyr -- continued to see strong sales, which were up 28% in March compared with February.
Sales of Ford’s profitable F-Series pickup trucks were up 4.5% in March. But sales of Ford’s Explorer and Expedition SUVs were down 31% and 13%, respectively.
A survey released by industry tracking firm Edmunds.com said the average incentive on a vehicle sold in March was $2,510, up 7% from February. Edmunds estimated that the industry spent $3.8 billion on incentives in March, with GM and Ford accounting for 71% of the total.
