Factory-fresh Hyundai cars stored on vast new gravel lots near the Mexican border.
Industry experts had lowered their forecasts for May auto sales, having been overoptimistic every month this year, always figuring that there would be a year-over-year sales increase, when in fact sales fell every month. So for May, they became practically gloomy, but not gloomy enough.
J.D. Power and LMC Automotive forecast that new vehicle sales in May would inch up 0.5% year-over-year to 1.54 million cars and light trucks. Edmunds predicted that sales would edge up 0.3% to 1.53 million units. And Kelley Blue Book forecast that sales would be essentially flat year-over-year at 1.525 million:
And this is what the industry got:
Total new vehicle sales fell 0.5% in May to 1.519 million light cars and trucks, according to Autodata (number of vehicles sold and delivered by dealers to their customers, or delivered by automakers to their large fleet customers).
The fifth month in a row of year-over-year declines.
Year-to-date sales are down 2%.
New car sales plunged 9.3% to 548,000 and are down 11% year-to-date.
New truck sales rose 6% to 935,170 and are up 4.7% year-to-date. After the April disaster for pickups, Chevy dealers offered discounts of $12,000 on Silverado pickups and Ford dealers offered discounts of $10,000 or more on 2017 model-year F-series pickups and over $14,000 on 2016 F-series pickups – which shows just how fat profit margins are on pickups.
The Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of sales (SAAR) in May fell 3% year-over-year, to 16.66 million light cars and trucks, the third month in a row below the 17-million mark.
The 71 days’ supply of unsold vehicles on dealer lots was the highest since July of collapse-year 2009.
Even the highest incentives for any May, estimated at nearly $3,600 per unit sold, could not stem the sales declines.
GM sales fell 1.4% to 237,156 vehicles, with car sales plunging 11.5% and light truck sales rising 3.1%. Fleet sales made up 19% of its total sales. Its inventories on dealer lots rose to 963,448 vehicles (from 935,758 in April), the highest since November 2007, at the eve of the collapse of the US auto industry. Days’ supply reached a dreadful 101 days.
Ford sales rose 2.3% to 240,250, with car sales down 10% and truck sales up 7.3%, after a massive surge in fleet sales (rental car companies and other fleets) that reached 34% of total sales, which is huge. Powered by these fleet sales, Ford edged past GM. Its inventory on dealer lots fell to 59 days’ supply, which is about normal.
Winners among the other large automakers:
Honda sales rose 0.9% to 148,414; cars down 3.6%, trucks up 5.9%.
Nissan sales rose 3.0% to 137,471; cars down 10.1%, trucks up 18.5%.
Subaru sales jumped 12.1% to 56.135, with car sales surging 20% (!) to 31,605.
Volkswagen Group sales (Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini) rose 3.8% to 49,525.
And the losers:
Toyota sales fell 0.5% to 218,248; cars plunged 13.8%, trucks jumped 12.4%.
Fiat Chrysler sales down 0.9% to 193,040; cars plunged 24.3%; trucks up 3.9%. As an aside, Fiat sales dropped 16% to just 2,670 units.
Kia sales (which is part-owned by Hyundai) down 7%, to 58,507.
Daimler sales (Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, Smart) down 7% to 30,290.
BMW sales (BMW, Mini, Rolls Royce) down 11% to 29,987, but Rolls sales surged 49% to a phenomenal 109 units.
Mazda sales fell 8.1% to 26,047, as car sales plunged 33.7% and truck sales rose 26%.
And then there’s Hyundai.
http://wolfstreet.com/2017/06/02/inventory-unsold-cars-hyundai-sales-crushed-gm-ford-others-struggle/
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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