Sales Numbers in the Dog Days
Because it’s the first of the month, automobile manufacturers today released their sales numbers for the month of July. Most makers suffered from the end-of-time model year, summertime blues–but this is always to be expected. Relatively unexpected, however, is the continued resurgence of the Chrysler name. The Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge brands combined to move 126,000 vehicles, helped by strong Jeep sales as well as a logic-defying bump in sales for the Chrysler 200, a lightly redesigned version of the Sebring, th car that I put on the list of the worst cars of the 2000’s. If Chrysler can do all this with a depleted lineup, it will be interesting to see the sales numbers they can put up when a new 200 arrives next year, as well as a new Voyager and Jeep Cherokee (both names from the past, hoping to drum up some more success).
GM saw a slight drop in sales year-over-year, but still managed to move 201,000 vehicles for the month. Ford saw an equally small increase in sales. However, these numbers are impressive given the small amount of incentives both of these companies have used to move their cars. Additionally, GM saw a 41% drop in fleet sales and Ford saw a 16% drop in the same category. These are great signs, as fleet sales not only decrease the value of the model names sold, but they provide very little margins for the brands.
Among the foreigners, Honda and Toyota performed the best, posting sales increases of 45% and 36%, respectively. These numbers are trumped up because of the inventory problems both companies struggled with over the past year (due to the Tsunami).
Hyundai and Kia combined to sell over 110,000 vehicles for the month and both brands posted July sales records. Wayyyy down at the bottom, Mitsubishi continued to scuffle, moving less than 5,000 cars and seeing sales decrease by almost 50% year over year. Ouch.
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