Auto Sales Slow Compared with Last Year

Sales of new vehicles fell 14% in early December, compared with the same time last year, according to J.D. Power and Associates' Power Information Network (PIN). The data also shows that US firms DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation all lost retail market share in the same period.

PIN collects and analyses daily retail information for new and used vehicles from more than 10,000 automotive dealership franchises in North America.

The latest figures (for the first 11 days of December, compared with the same period in 2004) show that all multi-franchise manufacturers except BMW Corporation (up 3%) experienced a sales decline. And all apart from Honda (down 3%) and Toyota (down 6%) saw double-digit declines.

The retail market share for DaimlerChrysler fell to 12.6% compared with 13.3% a year ago, while Ford's share was 15.8% (17.9% in 2004), GM's share was 21.7% (vs 22.4%), and Hyundai's was 3.8% (vs 4.1%).

Conversely, Toyota (17.1% vs 15.5%) and Honda (11.8% vs 10.5%) gained market share, while Nissan's share remained stable.

However, when the December 2005 figures are compared to the previous month's, the decline is less significant. New vehicle sales were down only 6% in early December compared with early November, and two corporations, General Motors (up 5%) and BMW Corporation (up 3%), showed an increase in sales in this period.

Bob Schnorbus, Chief Economist of global forecasting at J.D. Power and Associates puts the figures in context: 'December of 2004 was an exceptionally strong sales month that was driven by year-end incentive programs. That makes any year-over-year comparison hard to make, especially with regard to the Big 3.'

More details about PIN are online at www.powerinfonet.com . J.D. Power and Associates's web site is at www.jdpower.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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