The U.S. new car market was down 37 percent in January, but several automakers are optimistic that sales have finally hit rock bottom. In fact, a few even think the market has stabilized, with sales increases just a few months away.
New car sales totaled just 656,976 units in January, translating to a seasonally adjusted annual selling rate (SAAR) of 9.57 million vehicles. That’s well below the traditional 14 million to 17 million SAAR automakers have become accustom to, but there could be signs that the auto market is bottoming out.
During the month of January sales declined 48.9 percent for General Motors, 54.8 percent for Chrysler and 40.3 percent for Ford , but those hefty losses also include fleet sales. Both GM and Chrysler cut their fleet sales by 80 percent, with Ford reducing fleet sales by 65 percent. Those fleet sale cuts were factored in to the automaker’s overall January sales, resulting in the massive losses.
“The retail market was pretty steady over the last three months of 2008 and it appeared to remain so in January,†George Pipas, Ford’s sales analyst, told the Detroit Free Press. “Lower fleet sales account for almost all of the decline from December to January.†Ford’s share of the retail market was actually up to 12.7 percent in January, a 0.3 percent increase over January 2008.
Industry experts expect fleet sales to total 3.55 million units in 2009, down 1.3 million vehicle from a year earlier.
It remains to be seen if January was truly the bottom for auto sales, but there appears to be at least a little movement in the upward direction. GM’s GMAC financial arm financed 5,000 vehicles in January, up from zero in December. Automakers are also hopeful that the government’s bailout of the financial sector will finally free up some credit, although many buyers are still finding it hard to secure a lender.
