General Motors led Detroit’s Big Three in April as incentives and healthy truck volume boosted sales to 422,089 vehicles, up 12.7 percent compared with April 2001. GM truck sales were up 24 percent at 230,913 but car sales rose only 1.3 percent to 191,176 though the company said fleet volumes began to stabilise and retail sales regained momentum. Year to date, GM total vehicles sales were 0.2 percent down at 1,552,244 with cars down 15.8 percent to 661,000. That was offset by truck sales up 15.7 percent to 891,244. “Once again the industry’s strength surprised us in April,” GM’s group vice president of sales, service and marketing Bill Lovejoy said in a statement.


Strong sales of a redesigned Dodge Ram pickup and new SUV models helped Chrysler Group reported U.S. sales of 200,421 units in April 2002, compared to 187,119 in April 2001, an increase of 2.4 percent. Total Chrysler SUV sales of 46,580 units were up six percent compared to April 2001. Chrysler’s passenger car sales of 51,464 units were up four percent from year-earlier levels with several model lines showing double-digit gains from April 2001. “We have every reason to be pleased with our performance,” said Chrysler’s vice-president of sales Gary Dilts. Dilts added that production continues to remain strong, with 14 of the group’s 17 assembly plants expected to operate at overtime at some point during the second quarter. “As we move forward, we have many reasons to be optimistic,” he said.


The news from Ford was less upbeat, with April sales down 7.4 percent to 307,061 cars and trucks. The company said retail sales in April equaled year ago levels, but fleet sales dropped 24 percent. Ford brand sales declined eight percent to 257,782 with retail sales steady but fleet deliveries off 24 percent. However, there were some bright spots as Jaguar reported record April sales of 5,441, up 27 percent compared with a year ago, and Land Rover also posted record April sales up 29 percent to 2,775.


Lincoln sales were 11,256, up 12 percent compared with a year ago, with higher sales to retail customers offsetting a 50 percent decline in deliveries to fleet customers such as limousine services. In its statement GM said it was forecasting second-quarter production for North America at 12 percent up on a year ago to 1.53 million vehicles (677,000 cars and 853,000 trucks), consistent with its earlier prediction of over 1.5 million vehicles in its mid-April first quarter earnings announcement.


“The second-quarter increase from earlier estimates is due to continued strong consumer demand, the moderate recovery in daily rental deliveries as well as strong manufacturing performance,” the company said.

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“GM continues to face an extremely competitive environment, and currently believes its net price retention in North America in the second quarter will be between negative 1.4 percent and negative 1.6 percent.”













































































































































Ward’s U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Summary
April January – April
Units % Share DSR
Vol
Current Year-Ago Current Year-Ago % Chg. Current Year-Ago % Chg.
Domestic Cars 530,989 519,658
36.8

38.6

-1.9
1,891,711 2,122,466
-10.9
Import Cars 186,587 169,964
12.9

12.6

5.4
719,119 650,070
10.6
Total Cars 717,576 689,622
49.7

51.2

-0.1
2,610,830 2,772,536
-5.8
Domestic Light Trucks 640,512 582,395
44.4

43.3

5.6
2,429,263 2,401,055
1.2
Import Light Trucks 84,329 74,331
5.8

5.5

8.9
332,680 287,395
15.8
Total Light Trucks 724,841 656,726
50.3

48.8

6.0
2,761,943 2,688,450
2.7
Domestic Light Vehicles 1,171,501 1,102,053
81.2

81.9

2.0
4,320,974 4,523,521
-4.5
Import Light Vehicles 270,916 244,295
18.8

18.1

6.5
1,051,799 937,465
12.2
Total Light Vehicles 1,442,417 1,346,348
100.0

100.0

2.9
5,372,773 5,460,986
-1.6
Source is country of manufacture.  Domestics are from U.S., Canada, Mexico.  Imports are from overseas. 
Light vehicles are cars and light trucks (GVW Classes 1-3, under 14,001 lbs.).  DSR is daily sales rate.
Source: Source WardsAuto.Com
©Copyright 2002, Ward’s Communications, a division of PRIMEDIA Business Magazines & Media Inc.  Redistribution prohibited.

 





































































































































































































































































Ward’s U.S. Light Vehicle Sales by Company
April January – April
Units % Share DSR
Vol
Current Year-Ago Current Year-Ago % Chg. Current Year-Ago % Chg.
DCC** 200,421 187,119
13.9

13.9

2.8
742,620 783,930
-5.3
Ford 303,089 314,013
21.0

23.3

-7.3
1,122,075 1,248,608
-10.1
GM 416,516 355,190
28.9

26.4

12.6
1,536,589 1,537,427
-0.1
Big 3 Total 920,026 856,322
63.8

63.6

3.1
3,401,284 3,569,965
-4.7
Daewoo 2,300 5,011
0.2

0.4

-55.9
17,459 20,840
-16.2
Honda 101,847 96,705
7.1

7.2

1.1
378,286 380,269
-0.5
Hyundai 30,972 26,133
2.1

1.9

13.8
118,406 100,906
17.3
Isuzu 4,622 10,500
0.3

0.8

-57.7
17,250 31,330
-44.9
Kia 20,366 16,060
1.4

1.2

21.7
75,927 60,397
25.7
Mazda 21,584 21,860
1.5

1.6

-5.2
75,479 87,621
-13.9
Mitsubishi 30,124 26,706
2.1

2.0

8.3
120,663 100,499
20.1
Nissan 61,202 51,167
4.2

3.8

14.8
250,339 224,913
11.3
Subaru 14,155 14,163
1.0

1.1

-4.1
53,894 55,177
-2.3
Suzuki 5,996 5,706
0.4

0.4

0.9
20,017 19,818
1.0
Toyota 147,334 141,058
10.2

10.5

0.3
556,962 539,581
3.2
Asia Total 440,502 415,069
30.5

30.8

1.9
1,684,682 1,621,351
3.9
BMW 23,994 20,012
1.7

1.5

15.1
78,386 66,776
17.4
Mercedes 18,565 16,546
1.3

1.2

7.7
68,933 63,641
8.3
Porsche 1,980 2,388
0.1

0.2

-20.4
7,051 8,736
-19.3
Volkswagen 37,350 36,011
2.6

2.7

-0.4
132,437 130,517
1.5
Europe Total 81,889 74,957
5.7

5.6

4.9
286,807 269,670
6.4
Total Light Vehicles 1,442,417 1,346,348
100.0

100.0

2.9
5,372,773 5,460,986
-1.6
Light vehicles are cars and light trucks (GVW Classes 1-3, under 14,001 lbs.).  DSR is daily sales rate.
‘**DaimlerChrysler is former Chrysler Corp. operations only.
Source: Source WardsAuto.Com
©Copyright 2002, Ward’s Communications, a division of PRIMEDIA Business Magazines & Media Inc.  Redistribution prohibited.