Light vehicle sales in the United States fell 8.8% to 1,304,150 units last month as ‘import’ [foreign-owned] brands – many built in the US and Canada – overtook the Detroit-owned domestics for the first time ever.
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WardsAuto.com calculated that domestic brand car sales – by country of manufacture – fell 10.4% to 417,846 while imports were off 8.3% to 202,305.
Domestic light trucks fell 9.7% to 570,432 but imports were up 2.3% to 113,567.
Year to date light vehicle sales are down 3.2% to 9,520,849 – domestics off 5.4% and imports up 4.7%. Domestic cars and trucks were both down, with imports up.
The news comes as the US is in the midst of a credit crunch as so-called sub-prime borrowers mortgage default rates rise, pushing at least one major lender to the brink of applying for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
GM’s July sales were off 19% year on year to 315,995 units, Ford was down 16.4% to 189,764 and Chrysler fell 4.6% to 137,728.
Nissan and the minor Japanese and Korean players made modest 3-5% gains but Honda sales were off 3.2% and Toyota 3.5%.
BMW sales rose 25.1% but Subaru tanked with a 15% slump.
US analysts were quoted as saying that the housing slump was hitting Detroit automakers with sales of pickup truck models popular with builders down as much as 29%.
“We [saw] combined incentive spending for Japanese automakers reach record highs [in July],” said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com.
“Even Toyota was aggressive – with its highest ever month – to help fuel sluggish sales.”
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