Frankly, it sucks to be an automaker participating in the American marketplace these days. Honda is rockin’ and rollin’. Mini sales are steadily increasing, but its parent company is one of many luxury manufacturers that struggled in June. Follow this link to read GCBC’s first look at June’s sales in the States, or click here for the second look. Here are some interesting facts and figures that haven’t made their way into the discussion in this space yet.
14,500,000 cars will probably be sold in the United States by the end of the year. That sounds like plenty, but will actually be the worst sales year since the mid-90s.
Honda was one of the more successful brands in June; riding a wave that’s been growing all year. As other automakers continue to compete (or attempt to) with large SUVs and V8-engined trucks, Honda has placed two of its cars ahead of the Ford F-150 as a top seller over the last two months. However, the only Honda that comes close to resembling the prototypical domestic pickup, the Ridgeline, sold at a rate 41.5% down on June of 2007.
Last year, the 30 days from between the end of May and the beginning of July saw somewhere around 55,000 Ford F-150s find driveways in the USA. Ford sold just 38,789 F-150s last month. Desperately needing to rid themselves of ’08 pickups when the ’09 model is ready, Ford has delayed the launch for two months.
If you think the 40.5% drop for the F-150 is bad, just look at the Explorer and Expedition. Overall, Ford SUVs were down 55%. Expedition sales were down 59.8% compared with the same period last year. Explorer sales dropped; not as badly. Does a 52% drop relate to “not as bad”? Only the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, Volvo V70, and Volvo C70 sold better this June than last year among Ford Motor Company models.
BMW’s British outpost, Mini, had a tremendous month. It appears more than likely that Mini of 2008 will outsell Mini of 2009 by 18-22%; somewhere around 52,000 Coopers, Cooper Convertibles, and Clubmans.
Ignoring the build location of cars like the Civic, Accord, Camry, Corolla, and many others (which are frequently manufacturered not in Japan but in Canada or the USA), the Asian brands outsold American brands by almost a percentage point. Nevertheless, Toyota posted its greatest decline in year-over-year sales in ten years. The new Toyota Corolla, finally completely on-stream, fulfilled expectation with a 15.6% sales jump.
