Automotive News - March 9, 2009 - (Page 43) MARCH 9, 2009 • 43 U.S. light-vehicle sales – continued Feb. 2009 Feb. 2008 2 mos. 2009 2 mos. 2008 SALES Dealership groups cut vehicle orders continued from Page 1 Boxster (I) 911 Carrera/Carrera 4 (I) Cayman (I) Total Porsche car (I) Porsche truck Cayenne (I) PORSCHE Baja Forester (I) Impreza (I) Legacy Total Subaru car Subaru truck Tribeca Subaru domestic Subaru import SUBARU Aerio/SX4 (I) Forenza/Reno (I) Verona (I) Total Suzuki car (I) Equator Grand Vitara (I) XL–7 (D) XL7 (I) Total XL–7/XL7 Total Suzuki truck Suzuki domestic Suzuki import SUZUKI ES (I) GS (I) IS (I) LS (I) SC (I) Total Lexus car (I) GX (I) LX (I) RX (D) RX (I) Total RX Total Lexus truck Total Lexus tC (I) xA (I) xB (I) xD (I) Total Scion car (I) Avalon Camry (D) Camry (I) Total Camry Corolla/Matrix (D) Corolla (I) Total Corolla/Matrix Prius (I) Venza Yaris (I) Total Toyota Division car 4Runner (I) FJ Cruiser (I) Highlander (I) Land Cruiser (I) RAV4 (D) RAV4 (I) Total RAV4 Sequoia Sienna Tacoma Tundra Total Toyota Division truck Total Toyota Division Total Toyota Motor Sales car Total Toyota Motor Sales truck Toyota Motor Sales domestic Toyota Motor Sales import TOYOTA MOTOR SALES A3 (I) A4/S4 (I) A5/S5 (I) A6/S6 (I) A8/S8 (I) R8 (I) TT (I) Total Audi car (I) Q5 (I) Q7 (I) Total Audi truck (I) Total Audi (I) Bentley car (I) CC (I) Eos (I) Golf/GTI/R32 (I) Jetta New Beetle Passat (I) Rabbit (I) Total VW division car Routan Tiguan (I) Touareg (I) Total VW division truck Total VW division Total VW Group of America car Total VW Group of America truck VW Group of America domestic VW Group of America import VW GROUP OF AMERICA Domestic car Import car Total U.S. car Domestic light truck Import light truck Total U.S. light truck Total domestic light vehicle Total import light vehicle TOTAL U.S. LIGHT VEHICLE 282 557 235 1,074 444 1,518 – 5,978 2,940 3,730 12,648 441 4,171 8,918 13,089 1,492 755 – 2,247 43 703 502 – 502 1,248 545 2,950 3,495 2,575 595 2,147 700 76 6,093 516 281 3,625 2,593 6,218 7,015 13,108 1,203 – 1,640 856 3,699 2,100 20,271 363 20,634 14,194 3,909 18,103 7,232 2,315 4,779 55,163 1,922 1,616 5,008 128 1,890 6,508 8,398 1,606 5,334 7,874 5,726 37,612 92,775 64,955 44,627 64,935 44,647 109,582 192 2,202 494 445 75 47 133 3,588 627 438 1,065 4,653 69 1,808 510 564 5,983 1,273 972 666 11,776 503 871 510 1,884 13,660 15,433 2,949 7,759 10,623 18,382 225,916 127,868 353,784 267,560 68,450 336,010 493,476 196,318 689,794 124 602 234 960 755 1,715 1 2,971 3,642 5,255 11,869 1,038 6,294 6,613 12,907 2,414 1,216 – 3,630 – 1,408 3,761 1 3,762 5,170 3,761 5,039 8,800 4,795 1,422 3,906 1,891 189 12,203 1,549 569 4,767 2,189 6,956 9,074 21,277 3,261 10 3,824 1,788 8,883 4,073 33,992 922 34,914 19,309 1,893 21,202 10,893 – 9,758 80,840 4,961 3,520 10,513 394 – 10,377 10,377 2,617 11,262 13,125 14,400 71,169 152,009 101,926 80,243 103,545 78,624 182,169 397 2,775 384 847 231 62 326 5,022 – 1,130 1,130 6,152 231 – 964 1,305 6,823 1,535 3,346 1,824 15,797 – – 759 759 16,556 21,050 1,889 8,358 14,581 22,939 403,820 172,560 576,380 504,047 95,892 599,939 907,867 268,452 1,176,319 426 1,002 357 1,785 1,391 3,176 – 11,140 5,877 7,410 24,427 856 8,266 17,017 25,283 2,527 1,736 – 4,263 72 1,210 1,603 2 1,605 2,887 1,675 5,475 7,150 5,546 1,493 4,547 1,604 149 13,339 1,144 609 8,475 4,263 12,738 14,491 27,830 2,444 – 3,355 1,823 7,622 4,219 40,587 829 41,416 28,642 8,699 37,341 15,353 3,709 9,219 111,257 5,113 4,212 10,765 285 2,212 14,220 16,432 3,198 11,860 15,493 12,802 80,160 191,417 132,218 94,651 131,197 95,672 226,869 419 4,260 1,097 1,221 170 154 290 7,611 658 1,106 1,764 9,375 162 2,880 879 1,141 12,221 2,067 2,104 1,489 22,781 1,166 1,633 824 3,623 26,404 30,554 5,387 15,454 20,487 35,941 432,382 246,636 679,018 532,568 135,141 667,709 964,950 381,777 1,346,727 343 1,431 773 2,547 1,763 4,310 1 5,373 6,733 10,141 22,248 1,948 12,090 12,106 24,196 4,380 2,456 1 6,837 – 2,306 6,774 3 6,777 9,083 6,774 9,146 15,920 9,141 2,902 7,168 3,797 372 23,380 3,206 1,279 9,413 4,298 13,711 18,196 41,576 6,208 19 7,143 3,385 16,755 8,228 64,553 1,962 66,515 40,021 1,917 41,938 22,272 – 17,424 156,377 10,431 6,591 22,836 854 – 21,274 21,274 4,994 21,668 24,189 26,473 139,310 295,687 196,512 157,506 199,539 154,479 354,018 708 5,689 726 1,830 503 123 652 10,231 – 2,339 2,339 12,570 598 – 1,834 2,474 13,311 3,280 5,447 3,307 29,653 – – 1,315 1,315 30,968 40,482 3,654 16,591 27,545 44,136 766,460 326,820 1,093,280 941,392 186,703 1,128,095 1,707,852 513,523 2,221,375 Dealers: ‘For sale’ signs scare off buyers Saab, Saturn, Hummer and Volvo posted dismal February sales. Dealers blamed the lousy results on the uncertainty surrounding the brands’ futures. Ford Motor Co. is selling Volvo. General Motors wants to unload Hummer, Saturn and eventually Saab. U.S. sales for each brand fell more than 55.0 percent in February, while the overall market slid 41.4 percent. “They’re a disaster,” says Ken Playter, general manager of Glassman Automotive Group in suburban Detroit. Playter, who sells Saab, adds, “The uncertainty is killing everybody.” Hummer’s February sales sank 68.7 percent to 1,053. One dealer, who asked not to be identified, says that in 2005 he sold 100 Hummers a month. Today, the dealer says, he barely sells 15. “It’s over,” he says. Saturn’s sales tumbled 57.2 percent to 6,338. Says Burke O’Malley, owner of three Saturn stores in northern Virginia: “Some of my guys have told me that we’ve been close to making a sale and people say, ‘I’m just not sure, with all the press I’m hearing about General Motors or Saturn.’ “If we didn’t have those lingering issues,” O’Malley says, Saturn’s sales fall “might have only been 40 or 45 percent.” — Jamie LaReau and Sienna sales plunged 52.6 percent. General Motors’ sales fell 53.1 percent, as consumers turned their backs on the company’s orphan brands — Saab, Hummer and Saturn. GMAC Financial Services sharply boosted consumer loans to GM customers, but it wasn’t enough to stem the automaker’s downward sales spiral. Ford sales crashed 49.5 percent, as big trucks — the Navigator, Expedition, Explorer and F series — did especially poorly. Ford also didn’t get any boost from relatively new vehicles such as the Ford Flex and F-150 pickup and the Lincoln MKX crossover. Chrysler sales fell 44.0 percent, but the company’s virtual production shutdown in January kept a lid on inventories. In a bid to jump-start sales, Chrysler offered spectacular incentives ranging up to $7,755 on the Grand Cherokee, according to Edmunds.com. Honda sales slumped 38.0 percent as the company maintained its justsay-no-to-incentives strategy. Star performers included the Honda Fit and Acura TSX cars. Fit sales actually fell 1.8 percent, and TSX sales dipped 0.1 percent, but everything is relative. Nissan was the best performer among the Big Six, with a sales drop of only 37.1 percent. In an otherwise abysmal month, sales of the Infiniti FX and Nissan Rogue crossovers increased. Top 10 vehicles February 2009 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Ford F series Toyota Camry Chevrolet Silverado Toyota Corolla/Matrix Nissan Altima Honda Accord Honda Civic Dodge Ram Honda CR-V Chevrolet Malibu 23,614 20,634 19,788 18,103 16,002 15,976 15,687 14,448 12,370 11,516 Throttling back N.A. light-vehicle production forecast; units are in thousands 6 MOS. 2009 6 MOS. 2008 Chrysler LLC Ford Motor* GM American Honda Nissan N.A. Toyota Motor Sales 584 1,130 836 1,407 949 1,387 474 744 345 535 567 695 Source: Automotive News Data Center and company sources * Includes AutoAlliance production Note: 2008 actual; 2009 forecast Source: IHS Global Insight, Automotive News Dealers slash orders Big dealership groups are responding to the sales downturn with dramatic reductions in vehicle orders. For the first four months of the year, AutoNation cut orders 60 percent. Likewise, Lithia Motors CEO Sid DeBoer says he is “shrinking inventories dramatically” to match falling sales. But, he said, the factories are cooperating with lower orders: “They want us to make money.” Group 1 Automotive is cutting its inventory by $150 million by March 31, CFO John Rickel says. Smaller dealers are following suit. Norman Dorf, co-owner of D&C Honda in Tenafly, N.J., is reducing his inventory but doing more swaps with other dealers if he doesn’t have exactly what a customer wants. “I want to sell what I have in stock — there’s a transaction cost in making a swap,” Dorf said. “But I’m not going to lose a sale. If the customer wants it, I’ll get it.” But swaps don’t work everywhere. Kevin Wittrock, general manager of Wittrock Motors in Carroll, Iowa, says many of his nearby competitors will sell him a specific model but don’t want another car in return. “We call these dealers, and they say they don’t want anything back,” Wittrock says. “They say, ‘We’re stuffed.’ ” c Alysha Webb, Jamie LaReau, Donna Harris, Bradford Wernle and Lindsay Chappell contributed to this report JOHNSON Broker calls strategy ‘an outright gamble’ continued from Page 1 Growing conern RLJ-McLarty-Landers Automotive Partnership Owns 16 dealerships in 7 states Has reopened a Chevrolet dealership in Huntsville, Ala., formerly owned by bankrupt Bill Heard Enterprises Plans to open 4 dealerships — 2 Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep, 2 Nissan — in Texas within 14 months Is training minority managers to become dealer principals again. It’s smart to buy at the right time and the right price.” Minority entrepreneur Johnson has investments that include hotels and casinos. He also owns the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Association. Many other large auto retailers say they are conserving cash and don’t plan to buy dealerships this year. But Johnson says his partnership, in which he has a 60 percent interest, has the capital and management expertise to expand. Landers, who heads the partnership’s daily operations, says the group is profitable. He declined to disclose revenues or unit sales. “By the end of whatever happens with this recession, http://www.edmunds.com http://www.edmunds.com http://www.autonews.com/datacenter
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