Led by Ford, U.S. Automakers Quietly Gain Market Share
The domestic automakers Chrysler, Ford (F) and General Motors may be winning ugly, but they're definitely winning U.S. market share, led by Ford.
At the same time, Asian brands as a group, including once-mighty Toyota (TM) are losing market share, something that hasn't happened for a sustained period for a long, long time.
The Detroit Big Three are winning ugly because success is not across the board, and it's requiring more sales incentives and discounts than the companies would like.
Nevertheless, it's a positive sign for the domestic auto industry that at last the U.S. companies may have bottomed out after so much trauma, after Chrysler and GM going bankrupt last year. As U.S. auto sales climb out of the present trough (see chart of the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate through May) that puts the domestic companies in position to cash in when demand rebounds.
Year to date through five months, the Detroit Big Three brands combined had a U.S. market share of 45.3 percent, up from 44.7 percent in the year-ago period, according to AutoData.
The increase is entirely due to Ford, because share was down for both GM and Chrysler year to date, but by less than 1 percent. Chrysler and Ford both gained share in May from a year ago, but GM fell just short of breaking even for the month in terms of share, versus a year ago.
George Pipas, Ford U.S. sales analyst, said that in May, Ford had its sixth month in a row with sales up by more than 20 percent. Chrysler said its sales in May were up 33 percent from the year-ago month, the second such increase in a row.
General Motors has had some success with its newer models, but it is still having problems achieving consistent and widespread sales increases. GM bragged about the fact that in its first 12 months of sales, the Chevy Camaro outsold the former sports car segment leader, the Ford Mustang, by 99,872 to 80,340.
Toyota's U.S. sales were up about 7 percent for the month, but since the whole industry was up 17 percent for the month, that represented a loss of share.
It's too soon for the domestic companies to breathe easy. There's still more than half the year to go. The domestic share gain is pretty thin and narrowly distributed. In addition, it's only a gain relative to recent historic lows. Still, a share gain beats the alternative.
Chart: Data from AutoData Corp., chart by BNET Autos