Automotive News Europe - February 2013 - 26

Photo: Reuters

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

Despite worries about Europe’s debt crisis, a tense presidential election and the year-end fiscal cliff fears, U.S. dealers benefited from strong car sales. The 20 best-selling brands in the U.S. all increased sales in 2012.

U.S. sales hit their stride
Market has third straight year of double-digit growth
JESSE SNYDER

jsnyder@crain.com

n retrospect, 2012 was the year the
U.S. auto industry hit its stride.

Pardon the distance-running phrase,
but it describes the point when a runner
stops reacting to what others are doing
and settles into a steady pace he knows
will deliver his best performance.
And 2012 U.S. auto sales were their best
since the Great Recession of 2008-2009
– rising 1.7 million units or 13 percent to
14.5 million light vehicles.
It was the third straight year of doubledigit growth and the gain was even
higher than 2010’s 11 percent rise or
2011’s 10 percent increase.
Putting together three years with annual
growth between 10 percent and 13
percent and adding more than 4 million
units sounds pretty good, especially
to Europeans reeling from five straight
years of falling auto sales.
But the early recovery was filled with
drama from outside the U.S. auto
industry – a frantic “cash for clunkers”
scrappage scheme, economic shocks,
the August 2011 “debt ceiling” political
showdown that cost America its AAA
credit rating, even recurring worries

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that the European sovereign debt crisis
would dry up U.S. credit markets.
Each new crisis seemed to spook American consumers. U.S. car sales slowly
rose from late 2009 through 2011, but
the marketplace was volatile, reflected
in each month’s SAAR, the seasonally
adjusted annualized sales rate.
In 2009, the SAAR ranged from 9.1 million in February to 14.6 million during August’s “clunkers” rush. In 2010, monthly
SAARs dropped below 10.5 million, then
topped 12.5 million; in 2011 it see-sawed
between 11.5 and 13.6 million.
But in 2012, despite more European worries, a rancorous presidential election
and the year-end fiscal cliff, monthly
SAARs stayed in the low- to mid-14s,
except for a May dip to 13.9 million and
the final two months topping 15 million.
Analysts said U.S. consumers started
ignoring bad news. “It’s getting harder
to scare American car buyers,” said
LMC Automotive analyst Jeff Schuster.
But they reacted to an improving
economy and wider credit availability
– and released some pent-up demand
as the average age of vehicles on U.S.
roads hit 11 years, an all-time high. In
short, some Americans looked at their
car, thought, This is going to strand me

someplace cold and dark this winter,
and replaced it. When a market jumps
13 percent, there are lots of winners.
The 20 best-selling brands all increased
sales in 2012, and 13 of them held or
increased their market shares.
Sales fell for only five of 34 non-exotic
brands -- Cadillac, Lincoln, Suzuki and
Jaguar by 2 percent to 5 percent, and
Mitsubishi’s 27 percent loss was the
only major decline.
Other 2012 brand highlights:
w Volkswagen moved up a position with
a 35 percent surge and bumped GM’s
GMC brand from the top 10.
w BMW edged Mercedes-Benz (excluding Sprinter commercial vans) to repeat
as the top-selling luxury brand.
w No. 3 Toyota and No. 4 Honda regained much of the market share they
lost to other major brands in 2011 when
natural disasters cut their supplies.
w No. 1 Ford, No. 2 Chevrolet, No. 5
Nissan and No. 6 Hyundai lost some
market share as each recorded singledigit sales hikes.
w Suzuki is withdrawing from the U.S.
market, joining Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer, Saab, Mercury and Isuzu as brands
discontinued since 2008.

FEBRUARY 2013

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Automotive News Europe - February 2013

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