Automotive News - June 13, 2011 - 16

16 • JUNE 13, 2011

# NEW CAR Fleet sales decline in May Among 7 largest
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Retail vs. fleet sales
May 2011 retail sales

automakers, only Nissan’s mix rises
Joseph Lichterman
jlichterman@crain.com

Estimated retail and fleet volume for May 2011 vs. May 2010
May 2011 % retail May 2010 retail sales May 2010 % retail May % change

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General Motors Ford Motor Toyota Motor Hyundai-Kia American Honda* Chrysler Group Nissan N.A. Top 7

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Fleet sales continued to shrink for six of the seven largest automakers last month with Nissan the only manufacturer to report a gain in its May fleet mix. The seven largest automakers saw their fleet sales drop 13 percent, to 203,000 vehicles, while they sold 707,900 retail units — a 3 percent reduction from 2010. The aggregate fleet share for the top seven was 22 percent in May — matching April for the highest percentage this year. Nissan North America’s fleet share rose 62 percent in May from yearago levels. Nissan sold 15 percent, or 11,200 vehicles, to fleet buyers. Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at TrueCar.com, said the rise in Nissan’s fleet sales was due to relatively high inventory in May compared with Japanese rivals. On May 1, Nissan had a 66-day supply of vehicles, according to the Automotive News Data Center. Industrywide, there was a 54-day supply on May 1. Toyota had a 44-day supply, and Honda had 36. General Motors reported the highest fleet mix by volume last month with 70,100 vehicles, or 32 percent of sales. Ford Motor Co.’s 66,000

151,100 125,500 100,100 97,500 89,000 79,700 65,000 707,900
May 2011 fleet sales

68% 66 92 91 98 69 85 78%
May 2011 % fleet

140,800 120,000 146,800 69,100 114,800 62,800 76,900 731,200
May 2010 fleet sales

63% 63 90 86 98 60 92 76%
May 2010 % fleet

7% 5 –32 41 –23 27 –16 –3%

FLEET
General Motors Ford Motor Chrysler Group Nissan N.A. Hyundai-Kia Toyota Motor American Honda* Top 7

May % change

70,100 66,000 35,700 11,200 9,900 8,200 1,800 203,000

32% 34 31 15 9 8 2 22%

83,000 72,000 42,000 6,900 11,400 16,000 2,400 233,700

37% 37 40 8 14 10 2 24%

–16% –8 –15 62 –13 –49 –23 –13%

*Estimate Source: Automotive News Data Center, manufacturers, industry sources

fleet sales accounted for 34 percent of all vehicles it sold in May — the largest percentage in the industry. Still, Ford’s fleet mix was down 8 percent from last year, a change George Pipas, chief sales analyst at Ford, said was due to a lower daily rental mix. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. saw its fleet sales slashed from 16,000 in May 2010 to 8,200 last month. To date, overall fleet sales have

been steady through the first five months of 2011, up 1 percent from 2010, but Toprak said the automakers have little motivation to sell fleet vehicles because of low stocks as a result of parts shortages from Japan. Toprak expects the percentage of fleet sales to taper off to the “low 20s to high teens” by year end. c Jamie LaReau contributed to this report

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Texas auto dealer Ramsay Gillman, who built his family business into one of the state’s largest dealership groups, died June 3 at his home in Houston. He was 67. Gillman was a second-generation owner of the Gillman Cos. In early 2010, he sold 99 percent of the company to his three children: daughter Stacey Gillman Wimbish and sons Jason and Christopher. In an interview with Automotive News in 2010, Ramsay Gillman described how the generational succession plan worked for the family company. “I hit the trifecta,” he said. “All three of my kids love the car business.” Ramsay’s father, Frank, started the business when he opened a Pontiac dealership in 1938. Ramsay started his career working in the parts department there. Ramsay and his brother, Barton, later took over the business. In 1998, the same year he was president of the National Automobile Dealers Association, Ramsay bought Ramsay Gillman out Barton. started out Ramsay Gillat his father’s man participatPontiac store. ed in numerous professional and charitable organizations, on the state and national levels. In 1996, the American International Automobile Dealers Association honored him as the national winner of the All-Star Dealer Award for his commitment to the industry and service to the community. Gillman Cos. now controls 14 dealerships in Texas. The dealership group, which generated $497 million in revenue in 2010, ranked No. 45 on the Automotive News list of the top 125 dealership groups in the United States with new-vehicle retail sales of 10,727 units last year. The family asks that donations be directed to the Fort Bend Women’s Center (P.O. Box 183, Richmond, TX 77406), Houston Automobile Dealers Association Scholarship Fund (P.O. Box 16550, Sugar Land, TX 77496-6550), or National Automobile Dealers Charitable Foundation (P.O. Box 9133, Tacoma, WA 98490-0133). c

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Automotive News - June 13, 2011

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