A leading auto analyst said that he expects April auto sales hit an 18 month low, Reuters reported. Lehman Brothers analyst Brian Johnson wrote in a research note that higher interest rates, declines in housing, dropping consumer confidence and a general economy slowing combined with fewer industry wide incentives led to an overall decline in sales.
Johnson told the news agency he expects to see sales declines between 6-7% for the domestic automakers. Ford is expected to have suffered the most, with a double digit decline in sales. Johnson also expects Honda and Nissan to post sales declines with Toyota posting only mildly higher sales.
Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Barry agreed with the assessment, saying automakers were hit by “lower fleet sales, a poor product cadence at Ford and very difficult car comparisons for Chrysler.”
The automakers will release sales results later today.
05/01, 12:18 PM
posted by:
Impulsive
You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
05/01, 12:33 PM
posted by:
F451
I would like to see Ford and GM collaborate—if not merge—to become a force again.
05/01, 12:57 PM
posted by:
George Bush
I’d rather see them go bankrupt
05/01, 1:00 PM
posted by:
Robert
Just wanted to point out that even the high and mighty Toyota could not escape the sales drag this month. Must have been an ugly month to be a car dealer.
April 2006 – 219,965
April 2007 – 210,xxx
They are mortal after all…
05/01, 3:32 PM
posted by:
norby413
Robert,
Yes, it was/is. Worst month I can remember.
Thanks bush.
05/01, 6:29 PM
posted by:
terminator
“I’d rather see them go bankrupt”
That would just be great for the economy and the rest of the auto industry. Two of the biggest research & developers go bankrupt.
You’re an absolute moron!
05/01, 10:29 PM
posted by:
0GSharK6
This month was ridiculously slow. All of our sales associates were in the single digits in sales except for one who had 12. Most of our lifetimers had between 2-6. That, and we normally push 90+ vehicles per month. I’d say this last month we probably sold 40, maybe 50.
05/02, 10:02 AM
posted by:
Ray Sinclair
Toyota shows mildly higher sales when everyone else is posting losses? That to me says wonders about Toyota. What is Robert smoking?
05/02, 11:59 AM
posted by:
1487_GM_SALES
One month is not representative of General Motors growth and restructuring success. Get over yourselves please.
05/02, 5:42 PM
posted by:
hanlond
“I’d rather see them go bankrupt” – George Bush
Why would you want to see such a large, massive companies going bankrupt??!! I really wouldn’t regardless of whether I like Ford and GM or not (and I do like both), I guess it doesn’t mean much to you since you probably don’t live in Michigan, but I do where most of the impact would be. Already more frequently than you would hope to you hear on the radio and news about people getting laid off and losing jobs, not just in the auto industry but in lots of other things. Detroit school district laid off over 500 teacher and closed over 30 schools one month alone. Hundreds if not thousands of jobs are moving out of the state and out of the country. The economy over here is a total mess. GM and Ford going bankrupt or going under would just crumble and destroy Michigan and our economy. Its enough that we have dumb leaders (Kwame Kilpatrick, mayor of Detroit, took out a $2k a month lease on a Navigator paid for by the city of Detroit while Detroit is in debt and has to close schools and lay off teachers and reduce the size of the already crappy and consistently late police force just because they are so deep in debt), two giant companies that our economy relies on going bankrupt or going under would be the end of this once great state. The impact would be felt around the world as over the over 600,000 people they employ (according to money.cnn.com) lose their jobs. And a lot of my friends and family would be part of 600,000.
What would happen to NASCAR? Most people here don’t seem to like or care about NASCAR, but it is the largest spectator sport in the US. Hundreds and maybe even thousands of companies advertise through NASCAR. I don’t think a race would be very eventful if the field was full of only Toyotas. Other companies would have to spend millions to develop engines and cars for NASCAR, and I don’t think many would want to. So, you can add at least another 10,000 people being laid off, and all of Toyotas money wasted on one season in NASCAR. All of Juan Pablo Montoya’s work in NASCAR would also be wasted on one season.
The GT1 class in Le Mans would be just Aston Martins with very little, if any competition since their main competitor is now gone.
Who would make the crate engines that are extremely popular with millions of people and used in most car restorations that require the engine to be replaced.
You may not care about GM and Ford, but you have no idea the kind of impact it would have if either goes down.
05/02, 9:26 PM
posted by:
Robert
Ray –
I hope you are joking… Toyota’s total numbers were down. Unadjusted for fewer selling days, Toyota lost over 9,000 in sales: -4%. That’s right. Negative.
That’s not marginally higher. According to the DSR numebrs, Toyota sold more per selling-day, but the problem with that model of reporting sales (you’ll notice automakers only dwell on it when it benefits them) is I know that Toyota dealers here in Cali where Toyota has the largest share were open every day in April except Easter.
Please read the numbers and not the press releases before questioning my mental capacity to comment.
05/03, 1:37 PM
posted by:
Minnsooner
I can’t understand all of the low sales numbers. We had a great month. We had one salesman sale 28, and all were over 10. Just because every one else is down, doesn’t mean you have to be down. We sold about 30 more units than normal, and we are Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep dealer.