Car Sales Bounce Back In September
DETROIT (WWJ)-Car and truck sales appear to be heading back on track, as the domestic car companies all posted solid sales increases—and Japanese carmakers showed signs of recovery.
"The good thing is we are seeing the best month we've seen since April," says Michelle Krebs, an analyst with Edmunds.com.
Industry sales are trending up about ten per cent, with the annual sales rate running in the 13 million range.
"Car sales have been surprisingly resilient in the wake of economic headwinds." said Krebs.
Ford sales rose 9 percent over September of last year, Chrysler sales are up 27 percent. GM sales are up 20 percent.
"We've seen market share gains in eight of the last nine months," said GM Sales Operations Manager Don Johnson. "It's just really great to see the strategy we've put in place is continuing to work."
Johnson said all of GM's brands posted sales increases, with GMC leading the way with a 27 percent increase. The small Chevy Cruze had another good month. GM also saw a rise in pickup sales, which is normal when the fall arrives.
"The full-size pickup segment as a share of the industry continued to increase," said Johnson.
The 27 percent sales increase at Chrysler was fueled by new products. The Jeep Compass, for example, saw sales up 306 percent from last year.
"Given the fragile state of the economy and the volatility on Wall Street, it's really encouraging and gratifying to consistently have month over month of sales increases," says Chrysler spokesman Ralph Kisiel.
This was Chrysler's 18th consecutive monthly sales increase.
Strong utility sales fueled the gains at Ford.
"Ford continues to deliver strong sales results in a dynamic marketplace with a broad portfolio of fuel-efficient, high-quality products," said Ken Czubay, vice president, U.S. Marketing Sales and Service in a statement. "This is further proof that Ford is offering the vehicles – with the fuel economy and technologies – that people truly want and value."
Ford also sees some underlying economic strength.
"September shows relatively good signs, with the industry growing from what was not really a very good August," says Ford analyst Eric Merkle.
Nissan posted a 35 percent sales increase. Toyota sales are down 17 percent, Honda sales down 8 per cent. Both companies are showing some improvement from a very difficult summer.
There remains disagreement over where sales may be headed. Some economic indicators are weak, other signs indicate sales could continue to grow.
"There's a lot of pent up demand," said Michelle Krebs of edmunds.com. "It's just slowly trickling out"
Analysts say there is still some underlying weakness in the economy.
"I think while September is looking strong, coming off of a strong August, it's not time to suggest everything's over in the sense of a risk," says J.D. Power analyst Jeff Schuster.
Schuster expects the rest of the year to be solid, but not quite as good as they had originally thought it would be.
"There's still a fair amount of risk heading into the fourth quarter. I think some of that risk is being pushed into 2012."
Connect with Jeff Gilbert
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