Auto Sales Remain Ugly Are Fantastic!
By Barry Ritholtz - July 1st, 2009, 3:30PM
Auto sales for June:
• Ford Motor smaller-than-expected 11%;
• Chrysler Group 42% decline;
• General Motors slipped by 33.4%
• Toyota Motor reported a 32% drop;
• Honda Motor slid almost 30%;
• Nissan reported U.S. sales fell 23%;
• Hyundai reported an 18%;
• Volkswagen sales fell 18%;
• BMW June U.S. Sales Down 20.3%
• Mercedes-Benz sales fell 22.6%
Note that June had 25 selling days, one more than a year ago.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:45 pm
BR-
you are just way way way too negative- here is the right spin- Yahoo Finance headline-
“US auto sales declines show signs of leveling off”
sounds like good news to me-
I thought it was interesting- that some of Toyota’s biggest models such as the Camry and Corolla were getting battle axed- 37% and 53% decline respectively- I always thought Toyota’s were rather bland non-descript cars- so was amazed they were able to keep a following- this coming from a 4Runner owner
~~~
BR: I Fixed the headline!
July 1st, 2009 at 3:47 pm
The radio here in east Tennessee is inundated with car ads and lakefront cabins sales on the resevoirs here. It seems to be all you hear. Not F so much as GM and C. Sometimes I feel like I am now on the midway at a state fair and the barker is trying to get me to by three pitches for a dollar.
Much more air time than a year ago…and the lakefront prices, even on the radio, have come way down…
July 1st, 2009 at 3:48 pm
My typing remains troubled…
July 1st, 2009 at 3:55 pm
They can’t even give cars away. Wonder if one carmaker will enact the Sears offer where you can buy an appliance on credit and not have to pay back what you owe if you lose your job?
July 1st, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Anything over 15%, to me, is Depression-like.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:56 pm
@ahab: Toyotas are indeed bland but VERY reliable. That’s the key. I have a very bland Corolla and the thing is amazingly reliable.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:57 pm
So it looks like the Japanese really aren’t super salesmen who can sell more cars more cheaply than Americans, eh?
Ford family here, anyway. Never bought a foreign plate, and never will.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I hear you mannwich- like I said I have a 4Runner- 2nd one no less (this new one I have is a 2001- so not so new anymore)- so- I agree they are reliable- and the 4Runner has a roll down rear window (like on the old station wagons)- which i like- but I never thought it was all that particularly stylish-
but it does work good- thought it interesting though that two of Toyota’s bread and butter products- which are cars no less- were getting wacked so heavily with sales declines
July 1st, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Uh, Franklin….
If you really want a car that was built in America, you should buy a Honda.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:11 pm
franklin- The UBER American- but-
I think you may be on to something- I think Ford will get the big bounce over other brands when things do turn around- looks like we are seeing it already- I have some admiration for them at this point
July 1st, 2009 at 4:12 pm
“Never bought a foreign plate, and never will.”
Me either F411. I buy all my vehicles from good old US manufacturers. Like the Camry my wife drives? It was made by some of those evil non-union workers in the mid-West that are driving down GM wages at the Jobs Bank.
My Tundra? That was made down in San Antonio where some heartless Latino-Americans are doing the same to the folks that make Dodge Rams.
I’m w/ you on this one, brother. I’ll never buy foreign.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I cruise in a Honda Element (ugly but practical). It’s a “foreign plate” but 90% of it’s made here in Ohio. Honda employs more people around here then Government Motors. Granted they are not union wages but they are a wage.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
How ‘American’ is your car???
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-03-21-car-content-chart_N.htm
July 1st, 2009 at 4:23 pm
I might add, I’m also w/ you F411 on the Ford thing, seriously. Just because I think Henry Ford was one of the greatest, most insightful and egalitarian visionaries this country has ever known, and because they aren’t owned by the government. If I ever buy a domestic plate, which is to say, a car manufactured by a company headquartered in the US, it most certainly won’t be a Chrysler or a GM.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:27 pm
stillaway-
I think the Elements look alright- I’ve even gotten use to those boxy Scions- the one’s that sort of look like a clown car- what I wish someone would still make is a stripped car with a manual transmission- when I was looking for my 4 Runner several years ago- found that manuals were no longer offered- and most were stocked with features or amenities that did not interest me
July 1st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Franklin:
I had never owned anything but F and GM all my life either until last year. My wife and I bought 2 Prius hybrids, and man, the things are amazing. Quiet, 50 miles/gallon (truly) and no rattles, no paint flaking, etc.
Sorry, the Toyotas are the bomb…and I posted the death of the joint venture between Toyota and GM in California yesterday. Toyota was using it to enlarge their foothold and GM was using it to learn manufacturing techniques from the Japanese. One company got what they wanted….
July 1st, 2009 at 4:38 pm
@The Curmudgeon, you’re living in the past, Henry Ford is long dead. The Ford company has long suffered from lack of flexibility (T-Ford made until 1927!) barely knows how to acquire/run a foreign company (Volvo)
July 1st, 2009 at 4:40 pm
BR-
now your’e getting with it- bad news is good news- and horrific news is merely sort of bad news- there is never truly bad bad news-
my guess is now that you’ve turned the corner – and have become an optimist- we are in for a 500 point drop- serious contrarian indicator-
hmm . . .I wonder if that would be considered bad news?
July 1st, 2009 at 4:42 pm
@Bruce
I had an 89 Taurus that had the paint flake issue, but my friend has a Honda (no idea what year, but old) with it as well. I’ve driven a Prius as well (the university owns a few) and they are nice, but remember that the Japanese gov’t paid the development costs. I never owned a GM vehicle and probably won’t either, mainly because their aesthetic designs never appealed to me. Ford, on the other hand, totally reshaped the auto industry in the 1980s. You can divide the designs of all auto manufacturers into two categories:
Pre-Taurus (ugly, boxy 1970s style)
Post-Taurus (a more elegant, more streamlined look)
@Shark and TC
Thanks for posting the link–my Explorer was made in Louisville and it’s 80% American. It’s all about the balance of payments and the industrial know-how. Even if Toyota invests a lot here, and even if it assembles things here, the profits and the industrial intelligence all go back to Japan. I won’t be a part of that.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:46 pm
You are correct about their current operations, Super Trooper, but still, they aren’t owned by the government. And Henry Ford’s DNA is still somewhere alive in the organization (and I don’t mean his actual DNA like his grandson that lately tried and failed to run the company). I mean the idea of making good things at a competitive price that meets the needs of regular folks.
I’ve been looking for a tractor for my mini-farm, and stumbled across a guy that restores old Ford tractors–the one I looked at was a ‘49–that Ford made for family farms. I asked him how hard it would be to repair and get parts. He said Ford made it so anyone could fix it, and the parts can still be had at any tractor supply store. That’s the idea I’m talking about.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:46 pm
ahab 4:27
I’m with you on extra “features and amenities”. Just more useless stuff to break.
Do we really need an daytime-nighttime auto adjusting rear view mirror?
July 1st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
throwing practicality out the window- I would drive a new Dodge Challenger- quite the badass car- in fact my license plate would say- literally-
BADASS
July 1st, 2009 at 4:51 pm
@franklin411 What? have you seen the Ford Taurus wagons (for example 2003 model )? Among the ugliest window designs I have ever seen. I HATE the round windows and the oval shaped rear window.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:55 pm
@The Curmudgeon, ford knew how to make fuel efficient cars back in the day, Model A 1930, ~30 mpg.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Taurus’s were pretty ugly- back in the 80’s when the original Taurus came out- the best looking cars on the street were the Beamers- they were cooler then- then they are now
July 1st, 2009 at 5:00 pm
@Ahab:
If you had a “BADASS” license plate the I guess no one would confuse you w/ being a newly effeminate Japanese male:
July 1 (Bloomberg) — A question is cropping up more and more on the streets of Tokyo: male or female?
It’s not an exaggeration to point out that many young Japanese men are looking a bit ladylike. The phenomenon is an obsession on television talk shows, and it could have bigger implications for Asia’s largest economy than many appreciate, few of them good.
Social commentator Maki Fukasawa in 2006 coined the word “herbivores,” or grass-eating men. It’s not meant to insult vegetarians, but to explain a growing subculture of heterosexual males in their 20s and 30s who are less interested in careers than their salaried fathers and ambivalent to sex and marriage.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aEMEP10Ama6g
July 1st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I think the entire post could be summed up by the following
“declines show signs of leveling off”
Which is pretty much what we’ve been hearing about any and all economic news for the last 5 months. You would think the MSM would at least find a more creative way to say spin the same story.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:05 pm
@super
I’m talking about the first Taurus:
1986 Ford Taurus
http://www.allblueoval.com/ford/images/1986-ford-taurus.jpg
1986 Toyota Camry
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/toyota-camry-6.jpg
1986 Honda Accord
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/tw/images/86accord_dx-1.jpg
July 1st, 2009 at 5:07 pm
TC-
Japan needs to start a new military draft- pronto
whip these men back to their former militaristic selves
July 1st, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Damn – my car is 1.5% American
Ford Motor Volvo S60 series
2007 – 1.50% – Sweden
Everyone like the Swedes though right?
For what it’s worth, I’ve had my Volvo since 2003, it has about 100K on it and it’s never once been in for a repair.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Barry, we are all glad to see you adjusting the headlines and displaying a MORE UPBEAT ATTITUDE.
At this rate you will be invited back on Kudlow & Company and you might even get on Kneale and Squeal..
July 1st, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Well Thor- the only Swede I ever met for any length of time was when I was in Beijing- that dude would stay holed up in the hostel until night then sit at the community tables and GET WASTED- incoherent almost- but he was one funny dude- relaying stories about sex with woman in police uniforms and other stories I can’t recall-
I am sure i was drunk too though
July 1st, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Car sales should get a bump with this Cash for Clunkers bill which was just passsed. My sister-in-law
who lives just outside Detroit (car land) bought an 09 Impapa for “full” price around $23500. In Jan
we bought our 09 Sonata for $6K less and both warranties are twice as long. Hyundai sales continue to buck the trend and were up 18%. Glad I got mine early. Oh, it was made in Georgia.
July 1st, 2009 at 6:44 pm
pat g-
dude- why full price?- that had to be her decision- no-one is walking into a dealership paying full price- please elaborate
July 1st, 2009 at 6:52 pm
@ahab
Have way too much money. Neither have common sense, yet both have degrees, one retired from the state and the other from the school system as a teacher. Last year he paid “full” price on a Saturn which had 1K miles on it. Got it…spend it. Never been my philosophy and that’s served me well. To each their own.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:01 pm
pat g-
well pat I am certain you would have negotiated – a tried and true method of getting a fair value
July 1st, 2009 at 7:03 pm
@ahab
Absolutely!!
July 1st, 2009 at 7:06 pm
…i drive a german car made in south africa – wtf?
July 1st, 2009 at 7:08 pm
What do you guys think of this article? Do you think the government spending binge is helping or hurting the economy (short-term and longer term)?
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/272471/How-Obama-Blew-His-Credibility-on-the-Economy?tickers=dia,spy&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=
To me, we are just digging ourselves a bigger hole, but hey what do I know.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Curmudgeon????
You drive a TUNDRA?…Me too
July 1st, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Barry:
You just changed the headline so Dennis Kneale doesn’t call you a dickweed, you cowardly blogger.
~~~
BR: Ha!
BTW, I thought the blogger going on TV — by phone, yet — had no idea what he was setting himself up for. He was naive in the ways of media, and they screwed him for it — he got the full treatment.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:49 pm
But my TRACTOR is John Deere…
July 1st, 2009 at 7:56 pm
…too many labels – brand names – life cycle cost analysis required…..
July 1st, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Don’t worry about these numbers. Dennis Kneale said the recession is over — so these numbers are an illusion.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:04 am
As James Brown said: “Living In America…” (American jurisprudence @ its finest)
Liability issues with GM and Mopar products? Too bad, so sad!
http://wheels.blog.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/gm-and-chrysler-liability-differences/?hpw
Watch for TTM to be the next in line to take market share (at the expense of the ‘old guard’: Honda/Nissan/Toyota and the latent newcomers: Hyundai/Kia). GM/Ford/Chrylser will
emote to ‘heritage’ level of auto mfg as the world by passes Motown.
Enjoy the ride…….though your mileage may vary.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:36 am
I never use foreign oil, only American.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:02 am
[...] and fin media types reported that June US auto sales suggest the worst is over. Here’s the year/year data; you decide: GM June sales -33.6%; May is -29% (GM says June is 10% than May m/m) Toyota June Sales [...]
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:48 am
super_trooper Says: “ford knew how to make fuel efficient cars back in the day, Model A 1930, ~30 mpg.” July 1st, 2009 at 4:55 pm
The first engine I rebuilt was a Model A—poured in place babbit main and connecting rod bearings.
If you restricted cruising speed to 40 MPH, eliminated AC, radio and CD, power steering, pollution devices, no more than 4 cylinders, tires of maximum 4 inches width, eliminate electric ww wipers, a maximum 20 amp alternator, restricted power to 40 hp, required gravity feed fuel flow and an updraft carburator with a manual adjustment on the jet for economy, the modern car could also undoubtedly get much better mileage. And never get on the freeway. Loved that Model A. It had bumpers.