Despite a slow start, July came through with another increase in US light vehicle sales. Volume rose 8.9%, producing a SAAR of 14.09m, a 1.69m-unit jump from July 2011.
Sales were down 10.3% from June’s pace as early dips in consumer sentiment and concerns about the economy slowed showroom traffic, but growing confidence in the latter part of the month boosted sales.
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A drop in rental sales was a big factor in the results for Ford and General Motors; they blamed slow fleet sales for the deficits in their monthly totals. Ford was down 3.8% and GM fell 6.4% in July, though both remain in the black in year-to-date (YTD) totals.
Chevrolet’s new-to-the-US Spark got a decent start in its first full month on the market but there are some questions about its prospects: Chevy has the Spark, Sonic and Cruze playing in essentially the same segment.
Chrysler came through with its 28th consecutive sales gain, up 12.6%. Sales of the new Dodge Dart are growing slowly as the Belvidere plant ramps up and begins shipping cars equipped with automatic transmissions, which are easier to sell in the US.
The Detroit Three took a big hit in market share as the resurgent Japanese automakers took another big bite of the pie. Japanese automakers, led by Toyota and Honda, claimed 4.5 additional points in July.
July was Honda’s month for big numbers. Volume rose 45.3%, the largest gain for any major automaker, as several models posted new records. Toyota backed up last month’s huge jump with another 26.1% improvement. Toyota is now second only to Volkswagen in YTD sales gains.
Subaru set another July sales record with a 110% improvement in Impreza sales and ended the month 15.9% ahead of July 2011.
The Koreans both announced new monthly sales records: combined Hyundai and Kia sales rose 4.8% even as they lost 0.4 points of market share.
The European brands picked up the share lost by the Koreans. With the exception of Saab, every manufacturer reported gains. Audi and Volkswagen led the way with sales up 28.0% and 27.3%, respectively.
BMW won July’s premium competition; Mercedes clings to a 104-unit lead over its archrival in YTD sales. One-time luxury leader Lexus is in third.
Passenger cars claimed 50.6% of total light vehicle sales last month. That’s well up from their 47.9% share last year, but down from their 51.3% in June 2012.
Petrol may once again play a role in new vehicle sales mix, at least in the near term. Prices have begun rising again, primarily due to problems at US refineries. Prices remain below their 2011 levels and it’s expected they will decline as refineries switch to less-expensive fall blends in September.
The SAAR trends for 2012 are tracking well compared to prior years, but volume took an uncharacteristic drop last month. This may have been due to the large drop in fleet sales as retail sales appear to remain solid. It’s not a trend yet, but bears watching.
| Manufacturer | Current Month 7/12/2012 | Current Month 7/11/2012 | Volume Change | Daily Sales Rate Change | Market Share 7/12/2012 | Market Share 7/11/2012 | Calendar Year-To-Date 2012 | Calendar Year-To-Date 2011 | Volume Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrysler Group | 126089 | 112026 | 12.6% | 21.9% | 10.9% | 10.6% | 960157 | 751958 | 27.7% |
| Ford Motor Co. | 173482 | 180315 | -3.8% | 4.2% | 15% | 17% | 1313865 | 1250051 | 5.1% |
| General Motors Co. | 201237 | 214915 | -6.4% | 1.4% | 17.4% | 20.3% | 1516950 | 1476525 | 2.7% |
| Detroit Total | 500808 | 507256 | -1.3% | 7% | 43.4% | 47.9% | 3790972 | 3478534 | 9% |
| Honda America | 116944 | 80502 | 45.3% | 57.4% | 10.1% | 7.6% | 817926 | 687944 | 18.9% |
| Mazda North America | 19318 | 20783 | -7% | 0.7% | 1.7% | 2% | 163115 | 143162 | 13.9% |
| Mitsubishi | 4194 | 7972 | -47.4% | -43% | 0.4% | 0.8% | 37067 | 52087 | -28.8% |
| Nissan North America | 98341 | 84601 | 16.2% | 25.9% | 8.5% | 8% | 676062 | 589574 | 14.7% |
| Subaru* | 25183 | 21730 | 15.9% | 25.5% | 2.2% | 2.1% | 189487 | 153799 | 23.2% |
| American Suzuki | 2266 | 2447 | -7.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 15260 | 15849 | -3.7% |
| Toyota Motor Sales | 164898 | 130802 | 26.1% | 36.6% | 14.3% | 12.3% | 1210994 | 943590 | 28.3% |
| Japan Total | 431144 | 348837 | 23.6% | 33.9% | 37.4% | 32.9% | 3109911 | 2586005 | 20.3% |
| Hyundai* | 62021 | 59561 | 4.1% | 12.8% | 5.4% | 5.6% | 418690 | 382358 | 9.5% |
| Kia* | 48074 | 45504 | 5.6% | 14.5% | 4.2% | 4.3% | 336781 | 290608 | 15.9% |
| Korea Total | 110095 | 105065 | 4.8% | 13.5% | 9.5% | 9.9% | 755471 | 672966 | 12.3% |
| Audi* | 11707 | 9146 | 28% | 38.7% | 1% | 0.9% | 76865 | 65055 | 18.2% |
| BMW North America | 27152 | 26120 | 4% | 12.6% | 2.4% | 2.5% | 185894 | 169461 | 9.7% |
| Daimler AG | 22298 | 21067 | 5.8% | 14.7% | 1.9% | 2% | 164950 | 141662 | 16.4% |
| Jaguar Land Rover | 4331 | 3795 | 14.1% | 23.6% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 31828 | 27497 | 15.8% |
| Porsche | 2803 | 2768 | 1.3% | 9.7% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 19253 | 18310 | 5.2% |
| Saab | 0 | 384 | -100% | -100% | 0% | 0% | 480 | 3820 | -87.4% |
| Volkswagen | 37014 | 29066 | 27.3% | 38% | 3.2% | 2.7% | 245739 | 183191 | 34.1% |
| Volvo Cars | 5717 | 5595 | 2.2% | 10.7% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 40333 | 41898 | -3.7% |
| Other (est.) | 690 | 627 | 10% | 19.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 4253 | 3768 | 12.9% |
| Europe Total | 111712 | 98568 | 13.3% | 22.8% | 9.7% | 9.3% | 769595 | 654662 | 17.6% |
| Total Light Vehicles | 1153759 | 1059726 | 8.9% | 17.9% | 100% | 100% | 8425949 | 7392167 | 14% |
