DETROIT, Oct 2 — US auto sales tumbled by more than 20 per cent in September as showrooms emptied after a government-funded summer sales boom and Ford Motor Co gained ground on its major rivals, sales figures released yesterday showed.
Sales for General Motors Co and Chrysler — the two US automakers struggling to regain momentum after emerging from bankruptcy — tumbled by the deepest margin in September.
GM sales dropped 45 per cent while sales at Chrysler were off 42 per cent.
Ford, meanwhile, managed to hold its sales decline to 5 per cent despite low inventories and sharply reduced spending on incentives. It estimated that it gained 3 percentage points of market share to 15 per cent of the US market in September.
Hyundai Motor Co, which has taken market share through the US recession on a growing reputation for low-cost and high-quality vehicles, saw its sales jump 27 per cent in September.
On the annualised basis tracked by analysts, industry-wide US auto sales dropped to near 9 million vehicles in September, near the weakest point of a four-year downturn that the US market hit in February.
By contrast, the August sales rate had been above 14 million, powered by the success of the US government's "cash for clunkers" programme and taxpayer-funded credits of up to US$4,500 (RM15,750) for consumers who traded in old vehicles.
"We believe consumer traffic at dealerships evaporated in the absence of the incentive programme, which ended in August," Standard & Poor's equity analyst Efraim Levy said in a note. "However, we expect the September lull to be temporary, as the comparisons get easier and we see the economy improving."
Major automakers also held out hope for a gradual recovery in sales in the fourth quarter once dealer stocks of cars and trucks are built back up in the coming weeks.
"We are not bleeding like people think we are," said Fiat SpA chief executive Sergio Marchionne, who has taken charge of Chrysler's turnaround plan after the Italian automaker took management control at the US automaker.
Marchionne, who spoke to reporters at Chrysler's headquarters outside Detroit, said a combination of factors including reduced incentive spending led to the depressed sales figures for September.
"The future is going to be a lot better," he said.
GM said it was sticking with plans to increase production in North America by 20 per cent in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter.
"September was a tough transitional month for the industry, and a difficult year-over-year comparison for GM," said Mark LaNeve, GM's North American sales chief. "Fortunately, the fourth quarter looks brighter and our year-over-year comparisons should look more favourable."
Ford shares ended 3.33 per cent lower at US$6.97 on the New York Stock exchange on a day when the Dow Jones industrial average fell by 2.1 per cent.
US sales for the three major Japanese automakers were also lower in September after gains in August during the short-lived cash-for-clunkers craze.
Honda Motor Co sales were down 20 per cent in the month. Toyota Motor Co sales fell almost 13 per cent. Nissan Motor Co sales were down 7 per cent.
Auto industry tracking firm Edmunds.com estimated that the average discount on a new car was US$2,557 in September, down about 12 per cent from a year earlier.
That incentive spending is closely tracked by analysts and investors as a measure of the industry's pricing power and the pressure to move inventory. — Reuters
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