After a busy October, American car buyers took a breather in November. Light vehicle sales dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 16.39 million units, the slowest pace since June.
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Ward’s reports automakers sold fewer than 1.2 million cars and light trucks last month. Adjusted for daily sales rate (DSR), that’s down 1% from last November. Year-to-date (YTD) totals are still slightly ahead of 2003.
November results for the Detroit auto companies were like October’s; a gain for Chrysler and declines for Ford and GM.
Up 8.8%, Chrysler became the sole Motown automaker with YTD sales ahead of the same period in 2003. The company’s flagship marque set a November record with new benchmarks set by the Chrysler 300, Pacifica and Crossfire. Though sales of the Ram pickup have slowed, Dodge managed a modest 4% boost while the Caravan locked up its position as the leader in the minivan segment. Jeep was out of step with its siblings as transitioning to the new model hit Grand Cherokee sales, leaving it 21% shy of its November 2003 totals.
While sales of Ford’s domestic brands were off an adjusted 4.2%, retail sales were up 50% from November 2003. New products, including the Mustang and key mid-size cars, delivered very encouraging performances and the F-Series pickup could set a new sales record as it cruises to another year as America’s favourite vehicle.
Ford got more good news: the compact Escape SUV has already set a new annual sales record and both Volvo and Land Rover reached new November heights. The LR3 [the new Discovery 3 in the US] got a strong start, eclipsing the combined sales of the Discovery 2 and Freelander.
Although the Impala is almost assured of being the top-selling American-badged car for 2004 and Chevrolet is a hair’s-breadth from passing Ford as the best-selling vehicle brand, GM was the month’s big loser, down 13.2% as sales of both cars and light trucks slumped and put the General’s YTD totals in the red. Except for the Escalade ESV, sales of GM’s profitable big trucks were off as buyers switched to smaller models. GM’s piece of the November pie was just 25.1% and it appears the big incentives are losing their punch.
The Camry and Accord have likely nailed the year’s top spots in passenger car sales as import brands claimed a record share of the light vehicle market in November. Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai and Kia set new records. Acura also delivered a November record, as did Lexus and Infiniti. Of the Asian automakers, only Mazda, Mitsubishi and Isuzu missed their 2003 marks.
European automakers posted mixed results. Solid C-Class volumes helped Mercedes join Land Rover, Volvo and Mini in beating their 2003 results, but sales slumped for the BMW brand, as well as for Audi, Porsche, Jaguar and Volkswagen. BMW car sales were down 29% and the 7-Series failed to reach even half of its November 2003 volume.
Luxury vehicles claimed over 12% of all light vehicle sales in November, their largest share this year. Lexus now has a solid lead in the segment, followed by BMW.
The SUV segment remains hot but it appears consumer tastes are shifting to the smaller models and crossovers. Ford’s Explorer and the Chevrolet TrailBlazer are still the leaders, but the Escape is only a couple of hundred units behind the third-place Tahoe in YTD sales.
Bill Cawthon
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