Ford's U.S. Auto Sales Fall - Toyota, Nissan Gain

[Marc]

The battle for sales rages on...

Oct. 3 ( Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, said U.S. sales of cars and trucks fell 19 percent in September, while the biggest Asian automakers reported gains.

Ford sold 228,157 vehicles, down from 282,656 a year earlier, the Dearborn, Michigan-based company said in a statement today. Toyota Motor Corp., the biggest Asian automaker, had a 10 percent increase, and No. 2 Nissan Motor Co. gained 16 percent. DaimlerChrysler AG said U.S. sales of Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz vehicles were up 3.7 percent.

General Motors Corp., the biggest U.S. automaker, will probably report a decline, according to a Bloomberg survey of auto analysts and economists. The lure of employee-price discounts for GM and Ford has faded while rising gasoline prices and damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita pinched demand.

"The hangover has already started'' from employee-pricing promotions, Argus Research analyst Kevin Tynan said in an interview. ``You have gasoline prices at $3'' a gallon. ``It's pushing the shift to smaller, more fuel-efficient'' vehicles.

Detroit-based GM, which introduced employee prices for all customers in June, saw sales increase 47 percent that month and 15 percent in July before posting a 13 percent decline in August.

Ford Trucks Tumble

Ford said its truck sales fell 27 percent while car sales increased 3.3 percent. Sales of F-Series pickup trucks, the top- selling line of vehicles in the U.S., dropped 30 percent. Sales of the Explorer, the top-selling sport-utility vehicle, declined 58 percent, while the Expedition large SUV fell 61 percent.

Ford said sales of the Mustang sports car and Five Hundred and Montego sedans offset declines in other car models. Sales of the redesigned Mustang rose 73 percent. The company sold 9,094 Five Hundreds and 2,792 Montegos. The Five Hundred and Montego cars weren't available a year ago. Ford's figures released today include import brands and heavy trucks.

Sales of Chrysler vehicles rose 4 percent to 175,556, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said in a statement. Chrysler sales have now increased for eight consecutive quarters. Sales of Mercedes-Benz vehicles rose 0.6 percent to 17,552.

Small Is Beautiful

Nissan sold 93,540 Nissan and Infiniti-brand vehicles, Jed Connelly, senior vice president of the No. 2 Japanese automaker's U.S. unit, said in an interview. Higher fuel prices in the month appeared to boost sales of Nissan's compact Sentra cars and mid- sized Altima sedans and Murano SUVS, the company's most fuel- efficient models in their respective categories, Connelly said.

"We're trying to increase supply of those models,'' he said. Conversely, sales of the large Armada and Infiniti QX56 SUVs slowed from previous months, he said.

The Tokyo-based company's sales pace was even stronger in the first two weeks of September, until Hurricane Rita arrived, Connelly said.

"Dealers in the Gulf region were out of business for most of the month of September,'' Connelly said. "Basically the entire state of Texas was impacted.''

Toyota raised sales in the month to 178,417 from 161,793 a year earlier, helped by demand for gasoline-electric Prius cars and hybrid Highlander and Lexus RX 400h SUVs, the company said in a statement.

Dealerships Damaged

Damage from Katrina and from Rita, which followed Katrina by 26 days, also crimped sales in the Gulf Coast area itself. The region is still digging out of the debris and damage from the storms.

More than 160 GM dealerships were damaged by the two storms, GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said. Some were shut temporarily, and others were destroyed, she said. She estimates that at least 2,100 vehicles were lost.

About 40 Chrysler Group dealers were affected and 4,500 vehicles damaged, representing 1 percent of overall Chrysler volume, spokesman Kevin McCormick said. All but about five are back in business, some of them using trailers or alternate facilities, he said.

Ford has about 50 dealerships in the areas affected by the hurricanes. Six outlets were still closed on Sept. 16 and almost all had reopened by the end of the month, Pipas said.

"Early indications are that most of our dealers in the affected area came through with moderate to light damage,'' said Mike Michels, a spokesman for Toyota's U.S. sales unit in Torrance, California, in an e-mail. "Six dealerships are closed in Texas and Louisiana. There is no electricity or phone service, and those cities have been locked down.''

The average U.S. price for unleaded gasoline hit a record $3.06 a gallon on Sept. 5 and the current average price is $2.94 a gallon, according to AAA's fuel-price Web site.

[Jim Wynne]

I went car shopping in August. I drive almost 100 miles a day round trip for work and with gas process being what they are, I was looking for something relatively cheap, fuel efficient and reasonably comfortable. I looked at Ford (Focus), Chevrolet (Cobalt), Toyota (Corolla), Honda (Civic), and Dodge (Neon). While looking at the Neon at a dealership that also sells Kia, I started looking at the Spectra, which I hadn’t originally considered. I knew that Kia had had quality issues, financial trouble, and had been bought by Hyundai a few years ago. In researching the brand, I found that major strides have been made on the quality front (much better initial quality and PPH numbers). I also couldn’t find anything negative about the ’05 Spectra sedan anywhere. It has more standard equipment than any of the cars mentioned above, a better warranty (5 years 60,000 miles b-to-b, 10 years 100k miles power train) and a great price. What’s not to like?

Meanwhile, Ford, GM and to a lesser extent (apparently) DCX have the bogus employee-pricing promotion (it benefits only the dealers, as far as I can see) and a lot of lackluster products. DCX is at least offering cool-looking cars, but Detroit has a long history of sacrificing engineering for cosmetics. The Kia was the first foreign-made car new car I’ve bought, and I’ve got to believe I’m not alone.