Chrysler Sales Up - Ford Down

[Perian]

Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo...8FB92B15B47%7D

Ford Motor Co. reported Monday that sales of its traditional SUVs plunged 51% in September, as consumers continued their mass exodus from the thirstiest vehicles on the road amid record gasoline prices.

Overall, Ford turned in a 19% decline in U.S. sales last month to 228,157 cars and trucks. Crossover and passenger car sales actually improved, but not nearly enough to make up for the steep decline of its bulkier SUVs.

Sales of the Ford Explorer and Expedition were both off about 60% from a year ago while the much smaller Escape, which is available with a hybrid engine, shed only 4%.

And the trend doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon, according to Steve Lyons, head of Ford North America sales.

"Traditional SUVs will continue to face headwinds in the coming months," he said, adding that customers did most of their buying in the summer months when employee discounting sparked an industry-wide sales boom.

Sales of the top-selling F-Series truck fell 30% to 69,643.

Analysts polled by Thomson First Call are looking for an overall industry sales rate of 15.9 million vehicles, down from 17.5 million a year ago and off from 16.7 million last month.

DaimlerChrysler up 4%

DaimlerChrysler turned in a 4% monthly rise to 193,108 vehicles. The Chrysler side rode the strength of nine new models, including the Dodge Charger and Jeep Commander, to a 4% increase to 175,556 cars and trucks.

Mercedes-Benz, which has been dented with quality concerns lately, turned in a 1% rise to 17,552 units, boosted by the all-new M-Class SUV. The R-Class will hit showrooms this month and will add to Mercedes luxury light truck lineup.

Nissan, Subaru rise

Nissan North America reported a 16.4% increase to 93,540 vehicles, with strong showings from the Nissan Altima sedan and Murano, a smaller, car-based SUV, as well as the all-new Infiniti M. The Pathfinder bucked an industry downtrend for traditional SUVs with sales more than doubling to 5,088 vehicles.

Subaru of America posted a 2% to 16,100 vehicles with the Legacy sedan gaining 5% and the all-new B9 Tribeca selling 1,867 units. The Legacy wagon, however, dipped 17% to 4,919 vehicles while the Impreza lineup sold 7% fewer cars.

Porsche blames weather, gas

Meanwhile, Porsche Cars North America saw September's U.S. sales decline 9% to 2,144 cars and SUVs. Boxster sales almost tripled, but both the classic 911 and Cayenne SUV lineups saw declines.

"As a result of two devastating hurricanes, a nationwide surge in fuel prices and intense pressure from predatory discounting, traffic slowed down in our dealerships," said CEO Peter Schwarzenbauer, "We are positive customer confidence in the economy will rebound in the short term, not only for our own sake but the industry as a whole."

[Perian]

Originally Posted by Perian

plunged

Never a good word to have in a sales report.

Expedition & Explorer down 60%. Wow.

[paul3230]

51% decline? Ouch..I hope GM's results are much better than this. I'm interested in how Toyota faired

[TiburonJT]

Sounds like Ford needs the Fusion and Edge asap.

[lytmup]

Originally Posted by Perian

Never a good word to have in a sales report.

Expedition & Explorer down 60%. Wow.

jiminey crickets!!!

my sentiments exactly

[GapingOrifice]

my gawd, 60%?! and that's from their bread & butter vehicles too! I wonder if the the fusion trio is enough to offset that...

[Perian]

Originally Posted by paul3230

51% decline? Ouch..I hope GM's results are much better than this. I'm interested in how Toyota faired

I just saw the GM sales results for September -

Tahoe down 56%

Suburban down 57%

[AJR]

Originally Posted by paul3230

51% decline? Ouch..I hope GM's results are much better than this. I'm interested in how Toyota faired

According to Toyota's website, Toyota Motor Company's sales were up 10.3% compared to last September. Toyota sold 178,417 vehicles in September.

I have not seen GM's numbers but I am ready to shake my head in shame at our last two remaining car companies.

[x2222]

Nissan's gains have been amazing, they really seemed to do everything right to acheive this. 16+% gains are impressive compared to the marginal gains and losses of the other autmoakers.

Also

The dodge charger looks really nice but have been been seeing them on the streets even though theyv'e been out for a while? This says theyr'e selling but i just hope the car didn't get left behind in all the hype because its a good car.

[KingElvis]

It's a truism in the mass market auto world that they often rely on one "blockbuster" to bring home the bacon and finance the maker's entries in other segments. This is because the tooling for steel cars has a great initial cost, but can last for many years, so that a "hit" can pay for its tooling 10 times over, while a "bomb" like the Pontiac Aztec is all the more painful: the tooling cost alone kills you.

For example, in the '60s Ford's Mustang sold in the multiple 100,000 year after year, and many of the sales were much higher profit than typical compacat car sales.

Chrysler basically rode through the '75 to '80 period on one model; the top selling Cordoba.

In the '90s, Ford was selling 400,000 Explorers year after year. That was the "it" vehicle for the maker.

Now when your "it" Explorer sales plunge 60%...you worry.

[XCR440SP]

Originally Posted by Perian

Never a good word to have in a sales report.

Expedition & Explorer down 60%. Wow.

I think you'll be hearing this alot in the full sized SUV segment (Expedition, Tahoe, etc). I expect you'll also see the Large mid SUV drop, but not to the same degree. Remember the Explorer is new and redesigned for 06, but wasn't out yet last month so that would have made the drop appear worse than actual. I do expect 35-40% down on Large SUV's and a smaller decline (but still very large) on midsize once the hangover from employee pricing is over. I also expect the damage to be hidden by larger fleet sales to cover the huge retail loss that these are going to see.

[TiburonJT]

General Motors posted a 24% decline to 349,202 vehicles. Car sales fell 14.5% while truck sales plunged 29.5%.

Bad news, but not unexpected w/ higher gas prices and employee pricing.

[LI CADILLAC]

Originally Posted by paul3230

51% decline? Ouch..I hope GM's results are much better than this. I'm interested in how Toyota faired

im sure they are up like 110,000,000,000%

[LI CADILLAC]

IS IT EVER GUNNA GET ANY BETTER? I DONT THINK I CAN TAKE IT ANY MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . THE ONLY TIME THAT WE GET GOOD NEWS IS WHEN THERE ARE SOOOOO MANY !@#$%^ INCENTIVES. I SHOULD COME BACK WHEN ALL OF THE NEW LUTZ CARS AND TRUCKS ARE OUT (IN A FEW YEARS) AND MAYBE THERE WILL BE SOME HOPE. I AM AFRAID OF WHEN THE CHINESE COME OVER. DONT LAUGH, WE ARE ALL EATING CROW OVER THE KOREANS

[ChevyRacing48]

Whoa, scary numbers. 60% declines - with the GMT-900's coming and Ford with their newly designed Explorer, Sport Trac and Everest on the way at the very worst time. Talk about having unfortunate timing.

Someone please tell me not to worry about the chance that my only option for a new vehicle in 5 years will be Honda and Toyota.