By Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press –
DETROIT — Japanese automakers roared back in July while Ford and General Motors lost ground, in part because of fewer sales to rental companies and other fleet buyers.
Sales increased 45 percent at Honda and 26 percent at Toyota in July from a year earlier when both companies were struggling to rebuild supply chains and supply their dealerships with vehicles following an earthquake in Japan that crippled production in Japan and North America.
At GM and Ford, by contrast, sales declined 6.4 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively, for the month. Chrysler posted a healthy 12.6 percent increase, showing that it has more momentum than its domestic rivals.
“You can slice the numbers any way you want, but I think the reality is there has been some flattening of demand for Ford and GM in the last few months,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for TrueCar.com.
One of the biggest questions facing domestic automakers when the year began was whether they could hang onto the market share gained in 2011 when Asian automakers suffered from inventory shortages.
In the first seven months of this year, GM’s U.S. market share has declined by two points to 18 percent from 20 percent, according to industry researcher Autodata. Ford’s market share has declined to 15.6 percent from 16.9 percent for the same period. Chrysler has gained ground to 11.4 percent from 10.2 percent last year.
GM said its July sales fell because car rental companies bought fewer of its vehicles.
“The majority of the decline was due to the timing of rental fleet sales,” said Kurt McNeil, GM’s vice president for U.S. sales operations. “Essentially, we delivered more rental units earlier in 2012, than we did in 2011.”
Chevrolet’s sales to consumers fell 5.4 percent in July. Retail sales fell 5.6 percent for GMC, but rose 20.3 percent at Cadillac, which recently introduced the XTS sedan. Buick retail sales were up 2 percent.
A year ago, the Cruze was the top-selling compact car in the U.S. Last month, the Cruze was outsold by the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra and Ford Focus.
Last July, GM said 26 percent of Cruze sales went to fleet buyers compared with nearly zero sales to fleet buyers last month.
Ford said fleet customers bought 27 percent of the vehicles it sold in July, down from 31 percent a year earlier.
Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president, U.S. marketing, sales and service, said the decline was caused by higher-than-normal fleet sales in June but expects Ford’s percentage of fleet sales for the year will be about the same as last year.
Sales of pickup trucks for GM and Ford also stalled in July. Sales of the Chevrolet Silverado fell 12.5 percent in July while sales of Ford’s F-Series pickup increased 0.4 percent. Chrysler’s sales rose on the strength of its Chrysler 200 and Dodge Avenger midsize sedans. Chrysler 300 sales jumped 41 percent.
Sales of Honda’s two best-selling models, the Civic and Accord, soared 78.5 percent and 70 percent, respectively, from depressed year-ago levels.
“As our sales momentum continues to build through the summer, Honda is experiencing its best year-to-date sales in four years,” John Mendel, Honda’s U.S. executive vice president of sales, said in a statement.
Toyota continued to regain market share as sales of its family of Prius hybrids more than doubled and sales of the Corolla increased 34.5 percent.
Toyota has built its U.S. market share back to 14.4 percent so far this year from 12.8 percent in the same period last year. Honda’s market share has climbed modestly to 9.7 percent from 9.3 percent.
The industry sold 1.15 million vehicles in July, nearly a 9 percent gain from a year earlier, and the best July since 2007.
On an annual basis that translates to 14.1 million sales, a solid pace that contradicts other economic data showing an economy that is growing very slowly.
