June car and light trucks sales in the US reached 1,536,019, down 1.5% on the 1,619,638 sold in the same month in 2001. YTD sales were down 3.1% from 8,680,344 in 2001 to 8,415,145.
Nevertheless, writes Bill Cawthon, June was a solid month for new car sales in the United States as Detroit continued to supply incentives and buyers queued up to board the gravy train. Toyota has now wholeheartedly joined the party, looking to gain still more of the American market.
Light trucks reclaimed their sales majority in June, but by the slimmest of margins. The gap between car and truck sales, which had been widening, may be narrowing and bears watching.
Import brands still account for most passenger car sales in the United States, but General Motors’ June sales gains cut that majority to just under 51%. GM also boosted the domestic brands’ share of the total market by almost two percent.
June was very, very good to GM. Sales were up 4% giving the company a better than 29% share of total US light vehicle sales for the month. Both truck and car sales improved.
GM’s gains came largely at the expense of Ford and Chrysler, which saw declines. Ford’s drop was 10.6% while Chrysler lagged 4% behind their performance in June 2001. Chrysler’s news was cushioned by good sales from its Ram pickup and the fact its Chrysler brand set an all-time June sales record, led by an outstanding performance from the PT Cruiser. On a down note, there were no sales of Plymouth-branded vehicles and company officials indicated they may stop including the now-discontinued brand in their monthly reports.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataFord’s problems look to be getting worse. Year-to-date (YTD) sales of the company’s hometown brands are down almost 14% compared to the first six months of 2001. Of the 24 models marketed by the company’s three domestic divisions, only the Mercury Mountaineer is ahead of last year’s sales pace.
A number of import brands, including BMW, Hyundai and Kia, reported sales records. All three are having their best year ever in the US market. Mercedes-Benz and Toyota are also still on track for record years, despite the fact sales at both companies were down in June.
In the all-important full-size pickup market, Ford’s F-Series continues its reign as America’s bestseller. Last month, the F-Series widened its lead over the second-place Chevrolet Silverado and was only 2,725 units away from equalling the combined sales of GM’s four full-size pickup models. That would have been a major corporate ego blow to GM. Should that ever happen, Bill Ford will be on the rooftops, shouting the news, and Rick Wagoner will be on street corners selling Avalanches for spare change to get the numbers back up.
GMC’s Sierra is still losing to the Dodge Ram, which came in third behind the Silverado. Someone should tell GMC those “put-down” ads are not working. Dodge is now doing twice GMC’s volume. Sales of the fifth-place Toyota Tundra were down 15% from last June and its segment share remains under 4.5%. Toyota can take some comfort in knowing the Tundra outsells the Chevy Avalanche, Cadillac Escalade EXT and the now-doomed Lincoln Blackwood.
Ford can also point to good results from the Explorer, still America’s top-selling sport-utility vehicle, and the redesigned Expedition, which looks to be gaining ground on the Chevy Tahoe, the volume leader in large SUVs.
Honda’s new Pilot is really flying. In June, it was less than 900 units behind the Highlander, Toyota’s best-selling SUV. The Honda CR-V remains the best-selling import SUV.
The Camry is well on its way to regaining its crown as the best-selling passenger car in America. In the first six months of 2002, it has built a 40,000+-unit lead over the Accord. In turn the Accord took back its second-place spot in June, leaving the Taurus once more in third. The Civic and Chevy Cavalier finished fourth and fifth respectively. The freshened Corolla squeaked by the aging Focus in June, but increased its lead in YTD sales.
The new Mini continues to sell well despite limited U.S. distribution. In just over three months, 6,739 have left dealer lots. The original Mini took from 1961 to 1967 to reach 10,000 sales in America.
Lexus recaptured the monthly lead among luxury brands, beating BMW by 457 sales. Lexus is now within 449 units of catching up with the Germans in YTD sales.
The big news among upscale brands is Cadillac. Exceptionally strong sales of the DeVille saloon propelled GM’s premium marque from fifth to third place, its best finish in recent memory. Mercedes and Acura rounded out the top five while Lincoln is picking out curtains to decorate its comfy sixth-place home.
Two members of Ford’s revised PAG provided some badly needed good news. The X-Type continues to work its wonders for Jaguar. In spite of sales drops posted by every other model, the X-Type has boosted YTD Jaguar sales by 62%. Ford is also getting good sales numbers from Land Rover, up 57% from this time last year.
Swedish cars produced mixed results. GM subsidiary Saab is well ahead of its 2001 mark while Ford’s Volvo is down more than 11%.
Among luxury SUVs, the Lexus RX300 is comfortably in the lead, 1,381 sales ahead of Acura’s MDX. Top five finishers included BMW’s X-Series, Mercedes’ M-Class and the Cadillac Escalade.
Ford’s E-Series full-size vans finally did it. The Econoline and Club Wagon outsold the combined sales totals of Chevrolet, GMC and Dodge vans by over 2,000 units.
The minivan market continues to be ruled by DaimlerChrysler. Dodge and Chrysler products claimed three of the top four spots, giving up only the second-place position to Ford’s Windstar. The popular Honda Odyssey remained in fifth, likely still hampered by competing production demands from the hot Acura MDX.
In the perennial competition between Chevrolet and Ford to be America’s favourite brand, the blue oval still beats the bow tie, but the gap narrowed in June. With the fast track product development programme being installed at GM, Bill Ford and Nick Scheele may want to rethink their more leisurely schedule and light a few fires in Dearborn.
Ward’s U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Summary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| June | January – June | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Units | % Share | DSR | | | Vol | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current | Year-Ago | Current | Year-Ago | % Chg. | Current | Year-Ago | % Chg. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic Cars | 559,682 | 620,948 | 36.4 | 38.3 | -6.4 | 3,010,916 | 3,366,719 | -10.6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Import Cars | 201,550 | 190,182 | 13.1 | 11.7 | 10.1 | 1,119,603 | 1,031,520 | 8.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total Cars | 761,232 | 811,130 | 49.6 | 50.1 | -2.5 | 4,130,519 | 4,398,239 | -6.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic Light Trucks | 684,310 | 723,078 | 44.6 | 44.6 | -1.7 | 3,770,719 | 3,822,802 | -1.4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Import Light Trucks | 90,477 | 85,430 | 5.9 | 5.3 | 10.0 | 513,907 | 459,293 | 11.9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total Light Trucks | 774,787 | 808,508 | 50.4 | 49.9 | -0.5 | 4,284,626 | 4,282,095 | 0.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic Light Vehicles | 1,243,992 | 1,344,026 | 81.0 | 83.0 | -3.9 | 6,781,635 | 7,189,521 | -5.7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Import Light Vehicles | 292,027 | 275,612 | 19.0 | 17.0 | 10.0 | 1,633,510 | 1,490,813 | 9.6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total Light Vehicles | 1,536,019 | 1,619,638 | 100.0 | 100.0 | -1.5 | 8,415,145 | 8,680,334 | -3.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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: Ward’sAuto.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 June January – June Units % Share DSR Vol Current Year-Ago Current Year-Ago % Chg. Current Year-Ago % Chg. Chrysler Group** 202,822 218,633 13.2 13.5 -3.7 1,162,005 1,210,050 -4.0 Ford 332,834 386,998 21.7 23.9 -10.7 1,778,053 2,002,912 -11.2 GM 455,432 451,609 29.7 27.9 4.7 2,390,975 2,441,891 -2.1 Big 3 Total 991,088 1,057,240 64.5 65.3 -2.7 5,331,033 5,654,853 -5.7 Daewoo 2,440 4,441 0.2 0.3 -42.9 22,291 30,898 -27.9 Honda 109,958 112,120 7.2 6.9 1.8 594,703 603,926 -1.5 Hyundai 37,007 32,140 2.4 2.0 19.6 190,109 164,643 15.5 Isuzu 6,189 9,879 0.4 0.6 -34.9 28,763 50,434 -43.0 Kia 22,498 21,188 1.5 1.3 10.3 121,215 101,633 19.3 Mazda 28,361 28,394 1.8 1.8 3.7 128,875 140,888 -8.5 Mitsubishi 22,465 23,824 1.5 1.5 -2.1 174,073 155,971 11.6 Nissan 61,356 63,767 4.0 3.9 -0.1 375,777 351,747 6.8 Subaru 15,695 17,733 1.0 1.1 -8.1 85,552 88,951 -3.8 Suzuki 6,206 7,076 0.4 0.4 -8.9 32,912 34,105 -3.5 Toyota 151,863 158,633 9.9 9.8 -0.6 878,353 865,381 1.5 Asia Total 464,038 479,195 30.2 29.6 0.6 2,632,623 2,588,577 1.7 BMW 22,465 20,250 1.5 1.3 15.2 124,475 107,257 16.1 Mercedes 16,336 17,328 1.1 1.1 -2.1 103,373 100,248 3.1 Porsche 2,134 1,933 0.1 0.1 14.6 11,427 13,073 -12.6 Volkswagen 39,958 43,692 2.6 2.7 -5.0 212,214 216,326 -1.9 Europe Total 80,893 83,203 5.3 5.1 1.0 451,489 436,904 3.3 Total Light Vehicles 1,536,019 1,619,638 100.0 100.0 -1.5 8,415,145 8,680,334 -3.1 Light vehicles are cars and light trucks (GVW Classes 1-3, under 14,001 lbs.). DSR is daily sales rate. **Chrysler Group is former Chrysler Corp. operations only. Source: Ward’sAuto.com ©Copyright 2002, Ward’s Communications, a division of PRIMEDIA Business Magazines & Media Inc. Redistribution prohibited. |