It’s amazing what a quick military victory, plummeting petrol prices and hefty incentives will do. Led by an 80% surge in sales of the Ford Expedition, Americans renewed their love affair with the big SUV, reversing a three-month decline, writes Bill Cawthon.
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Incentives weren’t an unqualified success, however. According to Ward’s, US light vehicle sales totalled 1,408,423 last month, down 6.1% from April 2002 and 3.9% in year-to-date volume. This puts the market on pace for 16.5 million sales this year, fewer than most analysts predicted. It is worth noting sales picked up in the last half of April as it became clear the war in Iraq would not be a prolonged engagement.
Based on daily sales rates, American vehicle makers lost ground, ranging from a 10.2% drop at Chrysler to a 6.4% decline at Ford. More alarming to Detroit is the fact foreign brands took a 1.7% greater share of the total market than they did in April 2002. Imports are also getting more of their sales from light trucks, further putting the last stronghold of the Big Three i peril.
The Detroit manufacturers weren’t alone. Jaguar, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Nissan were among the import brands missing their marks, as was Kia, which ended a string of records.
April was good for some import brands, though: Honda and Hyundai had record months and the controversial Cayenne gave Porsche its best April in company history. Toyota, even though it showed a small decline based on daily sales rates, actually set a new April record based on volume. GM’s Saab had its best month ever in the US, beating a record set in 1986.
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By GlobalDataMost of the German brands saw flat to slightly lower sales. It’s possible some of that was due to resentment of Germany’s position on Iraq, but the effect was minor. BMW’s car sales almost matched the record set last year and Mercedes’ new E-Class posted very strong numbers. Audi actually showed a small improvement over April 2002. Volkswagen was the major exception, dropping almost 16%, but it’s doubtful VW’s decline had anything to do with politics.
As has been true for a while, there was little change in the leading model positions. Even though sales of the Chevrolet Silverado were up from last April, it still couldn’t catch Ford’s aging F-Series. With the resurgence in light truck sales, it’s no surprise the best-selling vehicles remained the big pickups from Ford, Chevy and Dodge. The Accord was the most popular car and now trails the Camry by fewer than a thousand sales.
One change worth mentioning is the Chevrolet Impala’s rise to the top among GM cars. The clear winner in April, it now has a firm lead for the year.
Chrysler’s new Pacifica crossover had a reasonable month with just over 1,800 sales. Company officials say they have 27,000 dealer orders in hand.
With a hopeful end to the fighting in Iraq and warm weather coming, everything now depends on the American economy to show signs of recovery. It’s the key to industry hopes for a strong 2003.
