Toyota was clearly the biggest loser in January due to its recalls and stop-sales order on eight of its bestsellers. Yet, January’s results varied widely for its top competitors that may have tried to take advantage of Toyota’s problems with special incentives meant to lure disaffected Toyota customers in particular.
Toyota’s January sales “were 23 percent below our internal target,” Robert Carter, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.’s group vice president and general manager of the Toyota division, said in a conference call Tuesday. That number insinuated that more than 20,000 lost sales were attributable to the recall and sales stoppage in just the last few days of January.
Toyota only escaped greater damage in January because it didn’t halt sales until January 26, when only four sales days were left in the month. And the toll on the Toyota brand, especially, has been heavy nonetheless: Sales were down more than 47 percent compared with December, and January sales ranked as the worst month for Toyota since January 1999.
“Toyota was clearly the biggest loser of the month,” said Jessica Caldwell, director of U.S. sales analysis for Edmunds.com. As long as the sales suspension continues, predicted Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Ray Zhou, Toyota-brand sales will drop by about 75 percent overall as long as the stop-selling order remains in affect.
As for Toyota’s competitors, results were mixed.
Ford continued its surge of recent months by reporting a 24-percent sales increase for January. The company credited its increasingly robust product portfolio, but Ford also dangled $1,000 rebates to current owners of Toyota models and of products by Honda, which is facing its own significant safety recall.
Hyundai, which launched a similar incentive program, saw its January sales rise by 24 percent over last year as well. Recently, Ford and Hyundai clearly have been the two hottest companies of the Big Seven of U.S. auto sales.
Meanwhile, General Motors – which first introduced a Toyota-targeting incentive – reported a 14-percent sales increase in January compared with a year earlier.
“What we responded to last week was feedback from our dealers who were hearing from Toyota owners who wanted to get into a new vehicle,” explained Susan Docherty, GM’s North American vice president of sales and marketing. “Our January go-to-market plan had been to focus on our loyal owners. So we needed to adjust our incentives” after Toyota’s troubles deepened, opening an opportunity for rivals.
Honda’s January sales, however, dropped 5 percent. It did nothing special to target Toyota owners. Meantime, Honda also had to cope with the fallout from its own announcement of a recall of 646,000 Fit/Jazz and City models, including 140,000 in the United States, because of a faulty window switch.
Overall, Edmunds.com’s Caldwell said, January was a rather tepid month. Strong incentive campaigns in December had “pulled forward quite a few” retail sales from January, she said. And the return of a relatively normal market for fleet sales in January helped comparisons of this year versus January 2009, when overall fleet sales were abysmal.
“The next big shopping weekend,” Caldwell said, “will be Presidents’ Day” in mid-February. “We should see month-to-month sales growth” for February from January, she said.
Robust fleet business helped GM post a 14-percent overall sales increase in January compared with a year ago, to 146,316 units. Such is GM’s rising confidence that the company firmed up its official forecast of total U.S. light-vehicle sales for 2010, to a range of 11.2 million to 11.7 million units from the previous range of 10.7 million to 11.7 million units.
But GM’s retail sales fell by 10 percent during the month as the company continued to cope with the nearly complete disappearance, by now, of its Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn and Saab brands from the marketplace.
“We were only selling four brands” in January versus eight a year ago, Docherty noted. The abandoned brands represented less than 2 percent of January sales and now account for less than 1 percent of dealer vehicle inventories. “We’re 10 months ahead of schedule on the wind-down of Pontiac and Saturn brands,” she said.
Meanwhile, fleet sales burgeoned in January. A year ago, GM sold only 13,000 vehicles to fleets; in part that was because the nation’s economy was in crisis, in part it was because the company had chosen to pull ahead about 25,000 fleet sales to December 2008 that had been scheduled for completion in January.
This January, fleet sales rebounded to about 42,000 units, comprising about 29 percent of GM’s overall sales for the month. That was above the 26 percent of sales that has been the average for the company over the last three years.
Still, the GM executives touted the relative progress they’ve been making in retail sales over the last several months, in large part due to strong consumer response to all-new or completely revamped models including the Chevrolet Equinox, Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon, Cadillac SRX and GMC Terrain.
“Our conquest rates are up” overall, Docherty said, “particularly in large products.” Moreover, she said, GM’s average incentive spending continues to decline while the industry’s continues to rise.
January’s overall sales hike of 24.1 percent for Ford Motor Co. looks sensational, but an outsized increase in fleet sales ran interference for stunted retail sales, which dipped about 5 percent, Ford officials said.
Nonetheless, sales were up for all Ford brands (including a hefty 41-percent spike at Volvo) – and every Ford model posted a sales gain in January. The Lincoln division hiked sales by 16 percent and even the Mercury unit improved sales by 6 percent.
And Ford sales officials crowed that market share improved to 16 percent for the month, perhaps as much as 2.5 points better than January 2009’s figure.
But one has to look no further down the sales sheet than to the pre-Cambrian Ford Crown Victoria’s 91-percent sales jump, or the Ranger’s 47.3-percent climb, to know fleet buyers are back in the game after delaying purchases throughout a shaky 2009.
Fleet sales accounted for a hefty 37 percent of Ford’s 116,277 total sales in January – a figure double last year’s 18 percent but a ratio more closely aligning to what chief of U.S. industry analysis George Pipas says will be a “pretty normal” industry-wide fleet-mix average of around 22 to 24 percent in 2010.
Ford’s fleet-heavy sales mix did not go unacknowledged by Ken Czubay, vice president, U.S. marketing, sales and service, underscoring the industry’s relatively meek month that seems to have palpably deflated hopes of putting together a consumer-rallying streak.
“January retail sales to (individual) customers were below our expectations,” Czubay said flatly. The current consumer mindset is all about the perception of there being good deals in the market, he added. In an unexpectedly strong December, Czubay said, buyers responded to what they believed were showrooms rich with attractive deals.
But January’s incentives were lower – at Ford and across the industry – so perhaps consumer perception about dissipating deals was “fueled a little bit by reality,” Pipas conceded. According to Edmunds.com’s proprietary True Cost of Incentives metric, Ford’s average incentive of $3,095 in January was up $55 compared with December, but the industry’s January TCI of $2,382 was notably lower than December’s $2,542, meaning an average of almost $200 less going to consumers.
Ford’s crossovers and trucks all gained, too, led by the Escape’s 28.6-percent increase, a 25.5-percent hike for the Edge and a 9.5-percent gain for the F-Series pickup. The old-school Explorer and Expedition even generated increases, 15.2 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.
Although the Lincoln unit’s overall sales improved compared with January, 2009, the MKS and MKZ sedans were off by a troubling 16.6 percent and 14.2 percent, with the flagship MKS finding just 1,280 buyers. The MKX crossover rose 26.7 percent, though, and the Navigator somehow improved by 9.7 percent to 726 sales.
Mercury’s gain was driven by the 111.9-percent boost for the Grand Marquis (yes, grandma Mable, they still make it), a 12.1-percent improvement from the Milan sedan and 0.3-percent increase for the Mariner compact crossover. The rest of Mercury’s lineup consists of the Sable (nine units sold in Jan.) and the Mountaineer (-44.3 percent)
Everyone knows the bad news for Toyota. The good news: it probably could have been worse.
Thanks, perhaps, to how late in the month the company’s recall of eight high-volume models came, Toyota’s January sales decline of 15.8 percent seems practically tolerable. Still, it was the company’s single worst sales month in 11 years.
Robert Carter, Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.’s group vice president and general manager, Toyota division, said the final tally of 98,796 sales was about “23 percent below our internal target.”
Since he also added that sales of the other 11 Toyota-badged model lines not affected by the recall tracked roughly as the company projected, almost all of the decline from last January’s 117,287 sales total seemingly can be attributed to customers turning away from the Camry, Corolla, RAV4, Tundra, Matrix, Avalon, Highlander and Sequoia.
Of the recalled truck models, the usually consistent Highlander slid 15.7 percent in January, Sequoia dove 56.2 percent and the Tundra was off 40.2 percent.
Other trouble spots included the Scion unit, with each of the brand’s three models dropping by double digits, and the small-car swoon was augmented by a 10.3-percent decline for the Yaris.
Toyota’s bright spot for the month was the Lexus premium division: sales were up 14.2 percent, bucking a lengthy slide for the luxury unit. The improvement was fueled by the addition of the HS hybrid, which contributed an incremental 1,247 units to the Lexus’ 15,517 January sales. The ES midsize sedan (+6.6 percent) and the LS flagship’s 30.9-percent turnaround performance made the two the only Lexus passenger cars to post a gain, however.
On the truck side, Lexus’ GX stepped out with an enormous 163.8-percent increase, countered by a 5.5-percent drop from the always-strong RX crossover.
It all added to a market share of 14.1 percent, according to analysts at Edmunds.com, Toyota’s lowest share inat least four years.
Carter insisted that, for now, Toyota’s not concerned with the sales charts. Fixing the 2.3 million recalled vehicles is the company’s first and only concern at the moment, he said.
First, Toyota’s taking care of the customers who own the affected vehicles, “then we’ll get back in the sales business,” Carter said. “We have the best dealers in the country, and they’re going to prove it,” by doing the best job possible to attend to the recall, he added.
Regardless of economic conditions, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. rarely has had to struggle to connect with customers, but the market seems to be insistent on making Honda work harder to monetize its historically enviable brand image.
January was another month that left Honda essentially treading water. Not that many automakers wouldn’t happily take Honda’s 67,479 sales, but the total left Honda down 5 percent compared with last January. And with a few exceptions, performance from individual models was underwhelming.
Sure, the Accord broke out to a fine 35.6-percent gain that amounted to 20,759 units sold. The Civic held its ground with a 12.1-percent improvement, too.
The same can be inferred for the Insight hybrid; in January Honda moved just 1,307 of a vehicle initially projected to easily sell in the 7,500-per-month range. Unless gasoline prices balloon again sometime this year, the unloved Insight may have trouble hitting a quarter of the sales volume Honda envisioned.
The truck side of the business did not begin the year auspiciously, either. Every Honda-brand light truck was down for the month, led by the 33.4-percent slide for the Ridgeline, to a barely-breathing 738 units. The hoary Element trailed Ridgeline by two sales in January, a 30.8-percent slide. And even the dependable CR-V dropped a meddlesome 20.3 percent, while the blocky Pilot dropped 21.1 percent to sales of 4,865.
At the Acura upscale division, each of the brand’s three cars declined in January, led by the RL’s drop of 42.7 percent to an infinitesimal 110 units. Worryingly, perhaps, the midsize TL’s 1,986 sales outpaced Acura’s usual best-seller, the entry-level TSX, with just 1,806 sold in January, a drop of 18.7 percent compared with last year.
Acura’s MDX crossover was January’s saving grace, pushing to a 20.3-percent gain, while the RDX also had one of its better recent months, declining just 5.3 percent. Meanwhile, the all-new ZDX cross-whatever’s contribution of 172 sales can’t have too many Honda executives wondering what they’ll do with all the bonus money tied to Acura volume increases.
Nissan posted a 16-percent increase in sales in January, to 62,572 units compared with 53,884 units a year earlier. The results continued recent monthly gains for Nissan and moved the company at least temporarily into sixth place in overall U.S. auto sales, ahead of fast-dropping Chrysler 
At the same time, Nissan’s spending on incentives in January rose by an average of 14 percent per vehicle, according to Edmunds.com’s proprietary True Cost of Incentives formula. It rose about $200 to $2,455 from December 2009 to January, meaning that the company was still trying hard to “buy” sales in an overall January market that saw incentive spending ease.
“Nissan had a true sales increase,” noted Edmunds.com’s Caldwell, “but they had high incentive spending.”
The company’s gains were led by a 19-percent increase in sales of its Nissan brand. Sales of the Versa subcompact, for example, rose by 18 percent compared with a year earlier, to 5,914 units – setting a record for the month of January.
Other Nissan vehicles recording double-digit sales increases in January compared with a year ago were Armada, Maxima, Sentra, Altima and Frontier.
The Infiniti luxury marque struggled, however, with overall sales for January down by about 6 percent compared with a year ago in a U.S. luxury market that remains depressed. Sales of Infiniti’s M, EX and FX models plunged by high double-digit percentages compared with a year earlier.
Chrysler is going to advertise its poor-selling Dodge Charger during the Super Bowl telecast on Sunday, the first time in several years that any of the company’s products or brands have made an appearance. But the modest buzz around Chrysler’s re-entry into the Big Game is about the only thing the company is doing these days that could be construed as good news.
January sales brought more dismal results. Chrysler Group reported total U.S. sales for the month of 57,143 units, a decline of 8 percent compared with a year earlier. For a month in which other major competitors posted sales increases, Chrysler’s poor showing plunged it to sixth place overall among the U.S. auto market’s Big Seven – now, behind Nissan and ahead of only Hyundai.
The best highlight that Chrysler was able to muster was that its Dodge Journey crossover posted year-over-year sales gains in January for the third consecutive month. Also, the Jeep brand saw half of its lineup improve sales year-over-year, Chrysler said. And the Town & Country minivan saw sales jump by 6 percent while its Dodge Caravan counterpart saw sales rise 34 percent.
Meanwhile, sales of Chrysler’s once-stalwart 300 sedan plunged by 26 percent from a weak January 2009, and sales of its Charger and Dodge Challenger muscle cars declined by 47 percent and 39 percent, respectively.
“The company continues to make positive strides each month and that trend continued in January,” said Fred Diaz, president and chief executive officer of the Ram brand and lead executive for Chrysler’s overall sales organization. Diaz also pointed to Chrysler’s plans for “refreshed products and all-new models hitting the marketplace this year.”
Obviously, for Chrysler, they can’t come fast enough.
With January sales of 52,626, the Hyundai Group (the Hyundai and Kia brands combined) is putting together a run that soon may take it past sputtering Chrysler Group LLC and bring it within sight of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.
Chrysler – the nation’s No. 6 seller – sold less than 5,000 units more than Hyundai in January. Nissan, despite its own 16.1-percent sales increase, sold less than 10,000 units more than Hyundai last month. Hyundai, with a string of new models in the pipeline, could give both traditionally larger rivals a genuine run this year.
Hyundai’s potential surge is highlighted by the solid January breakout of the all-new 2010 Tucson, which bolted to 2,216 sales in an early-launch month. The number was a 128-percent increase over the old Tucson’s sales last January, Hyundai said.
Meanwhile, the Elantra compact car more than doubled sales, from 3,307 last January to 7,690 this year. The Accent subcompact also gained by a healthy 62 percent. The Genesis flagship improved by 58 percent. On the passenger-car side, only the building-out, current-generation Sonata lost ground, losing 62 percent.
Hyundai’s Santa Fe crossover gained by 43 percent, although the fullsize Veracruz dropped 66 percent to a paltry 401 sales.
In all, Hyundai sold 30,503 vehicles in January, while Kia kicked in with 22,123 sales.
Kia was led by a blistering performance from the new ‘11 Sorento crossover, which found 7,398 buyers in January, more than Toyota’s Highlander (4,478), double Nissan’s Murano (3,648), and more than Ford’s Edge (6,243).
Incremental gains for Kia in January’s flat performance include 3,732 sales of the compact Forte and 2,145 units of the Soul hatchback.
VW/Audi: Running a Strong, But Distant No. 8
As the Big 7 automakers jockey for position, Volkswagen-Audi ranks as the No. 8 manufacturer selling vehicles in the U.S., albeit a distant No. 8. Combined, the brands sold 24,529 vehicles in January, up 40 percent from 17,466 in January a year ago. That gives them 3.5 percent market share.
Volkswagen contributed the bulk of those sales: 18,019 vehicles for a 41-percent increase. January 2010 marked Volkswagen’s seventh consecutive sales month of growth.
“We are pleased by the strong start to 2010,” said Mark Barnes, Volkswagen of America chief operating officer. “It’s encouraging to see so many of Volkswagen’s newest models continuing to gain momentum in the marketplace — namely the CC, Tiguan, Golf and GTI.”
Of Volkswagen’s total, Jetta stood as the sales leader with 8,893 vehicles sold. CC sales soared 76 percent to 1,891 units. Tiguan sales skyrocketed 87 percent to 1,424 vehicles. The Routan minivan, made by Chrysler, had a 6 percent increase. Even the old New Beetle had a shopping 173 percent increase in sales that totaled 2,167 vehicles. The new Golf and GTI are just hitting the market. Passat sales, however dropped by a third. Volkswagen sold 2,447 diesels in the month.
“Having ended 2009 on such a high note, it was important to ensure that our success was substantive and enduring,” said Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen. “January sales figures reinforce the notion that our momentum is the byproduct of relentless innovation years in the making.”
Audi A3 sales jumped 106 percent, largely due to the availability of the A3 TDI clean diesel model. Audi had a strong month for diesels: half of A3 sales were diesels, 48 percent of Q7 sales were TDI. Audi said that level of demand far exceeds original expectations for TDI sales when Audi introduced the two models last year.
Sales of the Audi A4 sedan, the brand’s bestseller, rose 60 percent. Other A4 variants rose 34 percent. Audi A5 sales were up 74 percent to 1,051 vehicles; Q5 sales rose from last year’s 31, when it was just introduced, to 1,050 vehicles.
Audi still has its laggards. It sold a scant 52 units of the soon-to-be-replaced A8 for a 45-percent drop, only 43 R8s for a 60-percent decline, and 103 TTs for a 34-percent drop. A6 sales declined 35 percent to 507 units.
Mazda Holds Its Ground
Mazda North American Operations posted an essentially flat January, with sales up 1.8 percent to 15,694 vehicles. Mazda held 2.2 percent market share
The brand’s Mazda3 compact car was the volume seller at 7,368 units, but the number represented a 3.7-percent drop compared with January 2009.
Mazda’s top gainer in January was the CX-7 crossover, which increased 39.3 percent to 1,622 sales. The Mazda5 mini-minivan rose 21.4 percent and the Mazda6 sedan rounded out the brand’s improving sellers with a 14-percent gain.
Sales dropped a heavy 41 percent for the RX-8 sportscar to a demoralizing 92 total units, while winter was slightly kinder to the evergreen MX-5 roadster, which declined 15 percent. The Tribute compact crossover slid 42.1 percent and the fullsize CX-9 crossover dropped 12.8 percent.
Subaru: Records Shattered – Again
January’s surge also allowed Subaru to clinch the No. 9 sales spot in the U.S., speeding past Daimler brands’ Mercedes and smart as well as BMW and Mini combined. In 2009, Subaru handily whipped Mercedes-Benz in sales but the BMW brand still sold more vehicles than Subaru. In 2010, Subaru outpaced both BMW Group and Daimler.
Leading the charge were Subaru’s newly redesigned Outback and Legacy, which posted their best January sales ever. At 5,467 sold in January, the Outbacked doubled sales from 2009. Likewise, Subaru sold 2,448 Legacy models, also double what it sold a year ago.
Forester sales retreated slightly – 4 percent – from its 2009 blistering pace. Impreza sales were off 15 percent; Tribeca sales fell 38 percent to a mere 256 units sold.
Daimler: Mercedes Gets No Help from Smart
Daimler AG eked out a narrow lead over rival BMW with Mercedes-Benz and smart sales totaling 15,436 vehicles, a 26-percent climb from a year ago that gave the company 2.2 percent of the U.S. market.
But smart was no help. The relative newcomer to the U.S. sold a scant 278 fortwo vehicles in January, an 84-percent plummet from the 1,776 sold in the year-ago January.
In contrast, Mercedes-Benz saw sales soar 45 percent to 15,158 vehicles. The C-Class returned as Mercedes’ volume seller – 4,028 sold for a 33 percent rise from a year ago. The new E-Class wasn’t far behind, knocking in 3,824 units for a 166-percent hike.
Also posting beefy double-digit increases were: S-Class; SL-Class; M-Class; G-Class; GL-Class; and GLK-Class. And Mercedes sold 436 Sprinter cargo vans, which previously was sold by Dodge but is no longer due to the split of Daimler and Chrysler.
Posting equally hefty double-digit declines were the CL-Class, CLK-Class, SLK-Class, CLS-Class and R-Class.
BMW Group: BMW, Mini Off to Good Start
The BMW Group, including the BMW and Mini brands, sold 15,410 vehicles in January, a nearly 8-percent increase from a year ago. That gave the BMW group a 2.2 percent market share.
In contrast to Daimler’s smart, Mini, which had its own struggles in 2009, came out of the doldrums, posting sales of 2,247 vehicles, up 8 percent from a year ago.
BMW sales rose nearly 8 percent to 13,163 vehicles. BMW car sales rose 15 percent. The new 7-Series chipped in 1,300 sales. Still, car sales were offset by 12-percent decline in SUV sales.
“Traffic in our showrooms was a bit sporadic this month, but combined with a strong December we are delighted to see a positive January gain,” said President of BMW North America Jim O’Donnell.
Mitsubishi Slides
Mitsubishi sold 4,170 vehicles in January, a slight decrease fro last year’s 4,730 vehicles. It’s market stood at 0.6 percent.
Mitsubishi said Galant sales rose 22 percent from a year ago, Endeavor sales were up 128 percent from then and Outlander sales were about even with a year ago.
Jaguar/Land Rover Sales Dip
Jaguar Land Rover North America was one of the few manufacturers to report lower sales this January than last. The company sold 2,589 vehicles, down 3 percent last January. The brands combined hold 0.4 percent market share.
The drop was caused by lower Jaguar sales. The automaker sold only 631 Jaguars, down 19 percent from 781 sold in January 2009. The Jaguar XK bucked the marque’s trend with sales up 41 percent to 138 units. Still the XF and XJ, which is being wound down, dropped.
Land Rover sold 1,958 vehicles, up 4 percent from a year ago. Ranger Rover Sport, for the second consecutive month, had a sales increase – 46 percent to 823 units. LR4 sales were up 12 percent. Range Rover and LR2 sales were down double digits.
Suzuki Plunges 44 Percent
Despite gains of 5 percent for the Grand Vitara crossover, 12 percent for the SX4 lineup and even a 97-percent jump for the Equator pickup, American Suzuki Motor Corp.’s total sales still dropped 44 percent compared with last January. Suzuki sold a total of 2,040 units last month for a 0.3 percent market share.
The tiny brand couldn’t overcome the 978 sales lost from the discontinuation of the Forenza/Reno line or the 1,000 units-plus gone with the XL-7 crossover.
Those losses could not be made up by the meager 197 sales for the all-new, recently launched Kizashi sedan, a performance that cannot be encouraging for Suzuki or its enthusiasts. The Kizashi went on sale in early December last year and sold 71 units in its first month on the market, so January’s 197 sales did represent a 270-percent month-over-month gain.
Panamera Sales Move Porsche Forward
After a rough 2009, Porsche sales edged higher in January compared with a year ago.
The sports car maker sold 1,768 vehicles in the U.S. for an 8-percent increase and a 0.3 percent market share.
The rise came on the strength of the new Panamera. Porsche sold 534 of them. Sales of the rest of Porsche’s models were down significantly.
“In this environment, we are very pleased with the sales performance of our new Panamera, which continues to build up market share,” said Detlev von Platen, Porsche Cars North America’s president and CEO. “Even though we see a small ray of sunshine in consumer confidence, the luxury car segment remains challenging, especially for sports cars.”
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