GM U.S. Sales Rise 21%, Ford Gains 40% in ‘Rough’ Auto Market
By Katie Merx and David Welch
April 1 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. posted a 21 percent increase in March U.S. sales and Ford Motor Co. said sales rose 40 percent, trailing analysts’ estimates for a month when incentives helped lure buyers to showrooms.
GM deliveries rose to 188,546 from 156,380 a year earlier, the Detroit-based automaker said today. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, which topped GM a month earlier for the first time since 1998, said its total climbed to 183,783 from 131,465.
“It’s still a rough market out there,” said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Industrywide sales may have run at the fastest pace last month since 2009’s “cash for clunkers” rebates, even with GM and Ford falling short of analysts’ projections. Toyota Motor Corp.’s incentives to counter global recalls spurred rivals to match the offers.
The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate for cars and light trucks probably reached 12 million, the average of 8 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
That would be a fifth straight gain from a year earlier and make March the best month since September 2008, excluding August 2009, when the clunkers program concluded, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Manufacturers, dealers and investors use the annualized rate to compare monthly totals by taking into account seasonal buying patterns. The March 2009 pace was 9.86 million.
Analysts’ Estimates
The estimates for individual automakers are adjusted for the number of selling days in a month. March had 26 sales days, 1 more than a year earlier. Because of the extra day, adjusted sales will be about 4 percent lower than the actual figures.
On that basis, GM’s increase was 16 percent, compared with an average estimate of 25 percent, based on 6 analysts, and Ford’s was 34 percent, compared with 39 percent. Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler Group LLC may drop 3.4 percent, based on the average estimates.
GM retained Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC brands as part of its government-backed restructuring, and is selling or closing Saab, Hummer, Saturn and Pontiac, whose sales plummeted 88 percent in March. GM released results for the four remaining lines, which each posted gains of more than 40 percent, almost an hour before the complete tally.
“They haven’t increased consideration for the remaining brands,” said Jim Hall, principal of consultant 2953 Analytics Inc. in Birmingham, Michigan. “Killing brands does not increase the consideration for the brands you’re continuing. Obviously, they have to do that.”
Toyota’s Outlook
Toyota’s sales rose at least 35 percent, Bob Carter, group vice president of U.S. sales operations, said in an interview yesterday at the New York auto show.
Honda Motor Co., based in Tokyo, may say deliveries rose 17 percent, while Nissan Motor Co., based in Yokohama, Japan, may report a 43 percent gain, researcher Edmunds.com said. Seoul- based Hyundai Motor Co. said it sold 47,002 vehicles, a gain of 15 percent.
Industry sales matching analysts’ estimates would still underscore the market’s contraction in the recession. Annual U.S. deliveries averaged 16.8 million last decade through 2007. The 2008 total was 13.2 million, and 2009’s tally of 10.4 million was the fewest in 27 years, according to industry researcher Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.
Automakers were buoyed in March by rising consumer confidence and spring weather after February blizzards in the U.S. Northeast. The Conference Board’s confidence index rose to 52.5 from 46.4 a month earlier as gloom over job prospects began to lift.
Toyota began offering incentives on March 2 such as subsidized leases after the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker began worldwide recalls of more than 8 million vehicles to fix defects linked to unintended acceleration and to adjust brakes.
Competitors responded with their own discounts, while avoiding the spending levels the industry rang up in March 2009 as GM and Chrysler added incentives ahead of their bankruptcy filings. Incentives are down 14 percent from a year earlier, according to Santa Monica, California-based Edmunds.com.
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