The pick-up truck F-150 Ford until April 28, 2015 at Colma (California) – is the vehicle most sold in north America (Photo JUSTIN SULLIVAN. GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA)
One month after having been doped by the hurricanes, the u.s. automotive market has registered average sales in October, a period during which General Motors (NYSE:GM) has experienced a decline in its registrations on the bottom of the large stocks.
Approximately 1.35 million new cars were sold last month in the United States, falling 1.3%, according to the firm Autodata.
The amount expressed in annualized data seasonally adjusted (SAAR) is 18,09 million cars, up 1.2%.
GM and Fiat Chrysler, respectively, the first and third automobile manufacturer in the u.s., have experienced a decline of their sales despite significant promotions, while Ford, Toyota (T:7203), Nissan (T:7201) and Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) has seen registrations increase because of good sales for the 4X4 of the city (SUVS) and light trucks to plateau (pickups and trucks).
GM has sold 252.813 new cars last month, down 2% year on year, a decline less than the decline of 7.3% predicted by analysts of the firm Edmunds.com.
The group’s four brands – Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac – is said, however, optimistic for the last two months of the year, which are traditionally conducive to good sales because of the year-end holiday season.
“We are in a good momentum thanks to the strength of the u.s. economy and a strong demand for pickups and SUV’s”, wanted to be reassuring Kurt McNeil, sales manager for the United States.
At Ford, the new registrations amounted to 200.436, up 6.2% year on year, against 196.556 units expected.
The brand continues to record good sales for his big “truck” Super Duty as well as for the “pickup” F-150, the vehicle most sold in north America, but sales of hatchbacks and city – Ford Fusion, Ford Taurus – continue to unscrew.
– Exhausted the stock
Fiat Chrysler, for its part, passed 153.373 vehicles last month, down 13%. It is much less than the 158.742 units forecast by analysts, but the group Sergio Marchionne indicates that this decrease is explained by the fact that it has decided to reduce the fleet of vehicles for rental. On this segment, it has registered a 15% drop in sales in October.
The brand Jeep, which was unveiled on Tuesday the first photos of the new generation of its all-terrain Wrangler, has seen its sales decline by 3% in October. It represents 44% of the total sales of Fiat Chrysler.
Spent the month of September, which had been doped by the replacement of cars destroyed by the hurricanes, including Houston (Texas) and in Florida, the automotive groups have returned to the harsh reality: how to deplete the stocks that are growing day by day because of the saturation of the market after years of record sales ?
“In October, 72% of the new cars that have passed are vehicles for the 2017 model year, while a year earlier only 60% of new of new cars sold were model year 2016,” emphasizes Jessica Caldwell, an expert in Edmunds.
The promotions have also broken records: a buyer of brand new car has received a discount of 3.472 million in average last month, a top, according to Ms. Caldwell.
This combination indicates “the headwinds for the automotive market as we move towards the end of the year 2017”, writes the law firm Kelley Blue Book.
Among foreign manufacturers, Toyota has sold 188.434 vehicles, up 1.1%, while Nissan has elapsed 123.012 (+8.4 percent). Volkswagen has seen its sales jump 11.9% to 27.732 vehicles, while Audi increased 9.6% to 19.425 copies and those of Mercedes-benz of 0.5% to 31.401 registrations. BMW (DE:BMWG) has seen its sales decline by 3.4% to 23.200 copies.
