By almost every account auto sales in the US market for the month of March were horrible. Companies typically end the first quarter and try to stay on the straight and narrow for the remainder of the year towards their sales goal. Those that need minor adjustments start passing on incentives or start making unbeatable deals for the consumer.
But what to do when everyone is in the same leaky boat, and taking on water at a rapid rate? Somehow you simply need to hang on and ride the storm out and pray for a calming of the rough seas. If not, you certainly will face disaster.
Looking at the gains and losses last month reported by the automakers, you might think that some of them are making progress over last year. But depending on the manufacturer that may not truly be the case, it all depends on how they report sales.
Nissan like all of the other Japanese makers reports sales utilizing the DSR method, where percentages of increase and decrease are measured solely on vehicles sold per day not by monthly totals. So if you take a look, you see Nissan report a percentage gain of 3.6% for the month of March while actually selling over 4,000 LESS vehicles against last year. Infiniti indicated and impressive 7.3% boost in sales for the same month while selling only 56 more vehicles than last year. Fancy math huh?
So in order to really put things in to proper perspective, I will give you the good, the bad and the ugly, when it comes to sales figures for the first quarter based on raw figures.
After all shouldn’t we all be judged the same?
By doing so you can see who is actually ahead for the year, and who the posers and players may be. For instance did you know that Toyota is back in third place behind Ford and GM in US sales for the quarter? You might never realize that if you look solely at the percentages. How about upstart SMART already leapfrogging to half of Porsche’s sales for the year?
Truth can be told with raw numbers, so here they are and you tell us what trends you see.
POS | | Mar-08 | Mar-07 | Chng. % | YTD 2008 | YTD 2007 | Chng. % |
1 | GM | 282,732 | 349,868 | -19.2% | 805,720 | 909,093 | -11.4% |
| Buick | 12,317 | 16,222 | -24.1% | 37,834 | 43,343 | -12.7% |
| Cadillac | 17,453 | 18,943 | -7.9% | 46,665 | 46,825 | -0.3% |
| Chevrolet | 164,564 | 213,156 | -22.8% | 480,278 | 548,693 | -12.5% |
| GMC | 38,422 | 40,896 | -6.0% | 103,929 | 110,661 | -6.1% |
| Hummer | 3,451 | 4,847 | -28.8% | 9,863 | 13,004 | -24.2% |
| Isuzu | 0 | 1396 | -100.0% | 0 | 3,023 | -100.0% |
| Pontiac | 25,417 | 30,448 | -16.5% | 72,377 | 79,071 | -8.5% |
| SAAB | 2,962 | 2,837 | 4.4% | 6,468 | 7,420 | -12.8% |
| Saturn | 18,146 | 21,123 | -14.1% | 48,306 | 57,053 | -15.3% |
2 | Ford | 227,143 | 264,975 | -14.3% | 583,738 | 642,960 | -9.2% |
| Ford | 187,828 | 216,788 | -13.4% | 483,817 | 522,588 | -7.4% |
| Jaguar | 1,752 | 1,667 | 5.1% | 3,479 | 4,248 | -18.1% |
| Land Rover | 3,054 | 3,663 | -16.6% | 8,732 | 10,202 | -14.4% |
| Lincoln | 10,913 | 14,770 | -26.1% | 28,471 | 35,127 | -18.9% |
| Mercury | 14,333 | 17,426 | -17.7% | 34,435 | 43,873 | -21.5% |
| Volvo | 9,263 | 10,661 | -13.1% | 24,804 | 26,922 | -8.0% |
3 | Toyota | 217,730 | 242,675 | -10.3% | 571,748 | 605,855 | -5.6% |
| Toyota | 192,791 | 213,820 | -9.8% | 505,233 | 532,364 | -5.1% |
| Lexus | 24,939 | 28,855 | -13.6% | 66,515 | 73,491 | -9.5% |
4 | Chrysler | 166,386 | 206,435 | -19.4% | 453,871 | 537,249 | -15.5% |
| Chrysler | 40,539 | 51,874 | -21.9% | 116,620 | 139,472 | -16.4% |
| Dodge | 85,906 | 109,226 | -21.4% | 231,931 | 279,305 | -17.0% |
| Jeep | 39,941 | 45,335 | -11.9% | 105,320 | 118,472 | -11.1% |
5 | Honda | 138,734 | 143,392 | -3.2% | 352,642 | 354,208 | -0.4% |
| Honda | 125,446 | 126,406 | -0.8% | 315,102 | 310,547 | 1.5% |
| Acura | 13,288 | 16,986 | -21.8% | 37,540 | 43,661 | -14.0% |
6 | Nissan | 106,921 | 111,119 | -3.8% | 269,745 | 278,981 | -3.3% |
| Nissan | 93,100 | 97,242 | -4.3% | 237,212 | 246,436 | -3.7% |
| Infiniti | 13,821 | 13,877 | -0.4% | 32,533 | 32,545 | 0.0% |
7 | Hyundai | 42,796 | 41,984 | 1.9% | 95,338 | 104,205 | -8.5% |
8 | Mazda | 32,929 | 37,742 | -12.8% | 77,689 | 79,074 | -1.8% |
9 | Volkswagen | 27,832 | 25,824 | 7.8% | 71,967 | 72,445 | -0.7% |
| Audi | 7,987 | 8,020 | -0.4% | 20,557 | 21,028 | -2.2% |
| Volkswagen | 19,587 | 17,355 | 12.9% | 50,554 | 50,332 | 0.4% |
| Bentley | 258 | 449 | -42.5% | 856 | 1,085 | -21.1% |
10 | BMW | 27,437 | 29,011 | -5.4% | 68,678 | 75,522 | -9.1% |
| BMW | 23,115 | 25,325 | -8.7% | 58,365 | 67,360 | -13.4% |
| Mini | 4,289 | 3,655 | 17.3% | 10,164 | 8,073 | 25.9% |
| Rolls Royce | 33 | 31 | 6.5% | 149 | 89 | 67.4% |
11 | Kia | 24,871 | 27,567 | -9.8% | 68,214 | 73,603 | -7.3% |
12 | Mercedes | 20,820 | 21,627 | -3.7% | 57,681 | 56,030 | 2.9% |
1 | Mercedes | 20,808 | 21,612 | -3.7% | 57,647 | 55,985 | 2.9% |
| Maybach | 12 | 15 | -20.0% | 34 | 45 | -24.4% |
13 | Subaru | 16,685 | 18,027 | -7.4% | 40,881 | 42,892 | -4.7% |
14 | Mitsubishi | 10,750 | 12,536 | -14.2% | 27,081 | 31,645 | -14.4% |
15 | Suzuki | 10,510 | 11,030 | -4.7% | 26,426 | 27,794 | -4.9% |
16 | Porsche | 2,467 | 3,278 | -24.7% | 6,777 | 8,229 | -17.6% |
17 | Smart USA | 1,734 | 0 | N/A | 3,476 | 0 | N/A |
18 | Isuzu | 683 | 743 | -8.1% | 1,906 | 1,802 | 5.8% |
19 | Maserati | 250 | 217 | 15.2% | 585 | 526 | 11.2% |
20 | Ferrari | 163 | 149 | 9.4% | 403 | 400 | 0.8% |