Report::- February 2009
One more day in February wouldn't have done much to salvage yet another bad month of sales for the U.S. auto industry, but it wouldn't have hurt. All of the big automakers saw sales down around 40% or more last month compared to February 2008. Chrysler Co. (-44%), Ford Motor Company (-48.4%) and General Motors (-52.9%) again took the brunt of it, but Toyota (-39.8%), Honda (-38%) and Nissan (-37%) weren't far behind. This just goes to show that the argument about U.S. domestic automakers not selling what people want to buy is bogus, as people just aren't buying across the board.
That said, the same brands that sold well in January have pulled out another one in February. The Koreans both did relatively well with Hyundai down just 1.5% (its Daily Average Sales rate was up 2.6%) and Kia up 0.4% in sales. Subaru, meanwhile, was up a solid 1.4% in sales last month.
What are these brands doing that the others aren't? In Subaru's case, the redesigned Forester is selling like mad, up 107% last month with 5,978 units sold. Hyundai has an extra 1,263 units sold thanks to the all-new Genesis, but the Accent, Elantra and Entourage were all up, as well. Kia, meanwhile, got strong performances from the Amanti (!), Sorento and Sedona, as well as a 341 new Borregos sold last month. A combination of new models, attractive incentives and sales people who are better with the pitch than the next guy are probably all contributing to how well these brands are weathering the U.S. recession.
| Report- February 2009 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Vol. % Change | Total Sales 2/09 | Total Sales 2/08 | DSR % Change | Daily Avg. 2/09 | Daily Avg. 2/08 |
 Acura | -41.5% | 7,659 | 13,084 | -39.0% | 319 | 523 |
 Audi | -24.4% | 4,653 | 6,152 | -21.2% | 194 | 246 |
 BMW | -37.5% | 12,979 | 20,775 | -34.9% | 541 | 831 |
 Buick | -51.5% | 6,196 | 12,768 | -49.5% | 258 | 511 |
 Cadillac | -52.2% | 4,666 | 9,760 | -50.2% | 194 | 390 |
 Chevrolet | -54.5% | 75,555 | 166,166 | -52.6% | 3,148 | 6,647 |
 Chrysler | -62.8% | 15,519 | 41,709 | -61.2% | 647 | 1,668 |
 Dodge | -38.8% | 46,590 | 76,141 | -32.3% | 1,941 | 3,046 |
 Ford | -48.8% | 84,422 | 164,915 | -46.7% | 3,518 | 6,597 |
 GMC | -51.2% | 16,204 | 33,237 | -49.2% | 675 | 1,329 |
 Honda | -37.5% | 63,916 | 102,313 | -34.9% | 2,663 | 4,093 |
 HUMMER | -68.7% | 1,053 | 3,362 | -67.4% | 44 | 134 |
 Hyundai | -1.5% | 30,621 | 31,090 | 2.6% | 1,276 | 1,244 |
 Infiniti | -36.8% | 6,359 | 10,068 | -34.2% | 265 | 403 |
 Jeep | -32.0% | 21,941 | 32,243 | -29.1% | 914 | 1,290 |
 Kia | 0.4% | 22,073 | 21,988 | 4.6% | 920 | 880 |
 Lexus | -38.4% | 13,108 | 21,277 | -35.8% | 546 | 851 |
 Lincoln | -41.2% | 5,633 | 9,573 | -38.7% | 235 | 383 |
 Mazda | -30.4% | 16,401 | 23,548 | -27.4% | 683 | 942 |
 Mercedes | -23.5% | 14,199 | 18,564 | -20.3% | 592 | 743 |
 Mercury | -44.6% | 5,989 | 10,806 | -42.3% | 250 | 432 |
 MINI | -17.2% | 2,826 | 3,415 | -13.8% | 118 | 137 |
 Mitsubishi | -50.8% | 4,484 | 9,105 | -48.7% | 187 | 364 |
 Nissan | -37.1% | 47,890 | 76,151 | -34.5% | 1,995 | 3,046 |
 Pontiac | -40.7% | 14,200 | 23,935 | -38.2% | 592 | 957 |
 Porsche | -11.5% | 1,518 | 1,715 | -7.8% | 63 | 69 |
 Saab | -62.8% | 482 | 1,295 | -61.2% | 20 | 52 |
 Saturn | -57.2% | 6,338 | 14,801 | -55.4% | 264 | 592 |
 Subaru | 1.4% | 13,089 | 12,906 | 5.6% | 545 | 516 |
 Suzuki | -60.3% | 3,495 | 8,800 | -58.6% | 146 | 352 |
 Toyota | -40.0% | 96,475 | 160,892 | -37.5% | 4,020 | 6,436 |
 VW | -17.5% | 13,660 | 16,556 | -14.0% | 569 | 662 |
 Volvo | -55.3% | 3,356 | 7,505 | -53.4% | 140 | 300 |
| COMPANIES | ||||||
| BMW Group | -34.7% | 15,805 | 24,190 | -31.9% | 659 | 968 |
| Chrysler LLC | -44.0% | 84,050 | 150,093 | -41.7% | 3,502 | 6,004 |
| FoMoCo | -48.4% | 99,400 | 192,799 | -46.3% | 4,142 | 7,711 |
| General Motors | -52.9% | 127,296 | 270,423 | -51.0% | 5,304 | 10,817 |
| Honda America | -38.0% | 71,575 | 115,397 | -35.4% | 2,982 | 4,616 |
| Nissan NA | -37.0% | 54,249 | 86,219 | -34.5% | 2,260 | 3,449 |
| Toyota Mo Co | -39.8% | 109,583 | 182,169 | -37.3% | 4,566 | 7,287 |
