Toyota U.S Sales Fall in January 2010 While GM and Ford Sales Rise

Detroit Feb. 2, 2010; Jeff Green and Keith Naughton writing for Bloomberg reported that Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. January sales slid 16 percent to a 10-year low as a recall put some of its most-popular models off limits, while General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. posted increases that beat analysts’ estimates.

GM’s deliveries climbed 14 percent and Ford rose 25 percent after the automakers targeted Toyota buyers last week with trade-in incentives. Nissan Motor Co. said sales were up 16 percent. Honda Motor Co. said sales fell 5 percent, and Chrysler Group LLC dropped 8 percent.

Toyota’s decline snaps three months of advances and means the Japanese automaker couldn’t take advantage of the U.S. auto market’s longest streak of gains since 2006. Industrywide deliveries have now climbed for three months after the recession dragged 2009 demand to the lowest levels in 27 years.

“In the next few months, it is going to be a challenge for Toyota to convince consumers to consider their cars,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at researcher TrueCar.com in Santa Monica, California. “This is going to be a tough, uphill battle for Toyota.”

Toyota’s sales slumped to 98,796 from 117,287, the lowest monthly total for the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker since January 1999, based on data compiled by Bloomberg. Ford said it outsold Toyota for the first time since June.

Industrywide Deliveries

U.S. industry sales rose 6.3 percent to 698,378 cars and trucks, equal to an annualized rate of 10.8 million light vehicles, according to researcher Autodata Corp. That beat the average estimate of 10.5 million from eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

The January 2009 pace was 9.6 million, so last month’s rate meant the U.S. market was less than two-thirds of its size from 2000 through 2007, when annual deliveries averaged 16.8 million.

Manufacturers, dealers and investors use the rate to compare monthly totals by taking into account seasonal buying patterns.

“It’s a good sign for the economy to see some growth in sales,” said Stephanie Brinley, an analyst at AutoPacific Inc. in Troy, Michigan. “We expect to see month-over-month improvement all year, the Toyota problem notwithstanding.”

U.S.-based automakers’ results were measured against the average estimates of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, while the Asian brands were compared with an Edmunds.com projection. The estimates are based on daily selling rates. January had 24 sales days, 2 fewer than in 2009. Without the adjustment, results reported by some automakers are about 8 percent lower.

Adjusted Estimates

On that basis, Ford’s increase was 35 percent, compared with an average estimate of 34 percent, GM’s gain was 24 percent compared with an estimate of 16 percent and Chrysler’s drop was less than 1 percent, missing a projected 3.3 percent gain.

Honda had a 2.9 percent adjusted gain, missing the estimate of an 11 percent advance from Edmunds.com, a Santa Monica, California-based researcher. Nissan’s 26 percent adjusted increase beat the 23 percent projection, and the 8.7 percent adjusted drop for Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, was almost twice as large as Edmunds.com’s 4.6 percent estimate.

Toyota suspended U.S. sales of eight models on Jan. 26 while fixing an accelerator-pedal flaw, which meant that customers couldn’t purchase popular sedans such as the Camry and Corolla for the last five days of the month. Those were the top- selling cars in the U.S. last year.

Toyota Fallout

Collectively, the eight models made up 56 percent of Toyota’s 2009 U.S. deliveries, according to Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based Autodata. Vehicles still on sale include the Prius hybrid, Sienna minivan and Yaris subcompact, as well as its Lexus and Scion models.

New-vehicle sales tumbled 22 percent last weekend at El Monte, California-based Longo Toyota, the brand’s largest U.S. dealership, President Greg Penske said.

“We have to trust Toyota that the fix is the right thing,” he said. “Toyota has been our partner for a long time, and they’ve never let us down.”

Penske estimated that Longo Toyota has about 465 new autos covered by the sales cutoff. The dealership expects to receive accelerator-repair kits next week, and new-car sales may take a week and a half to return to normal, Penske said.

Malibu, Fusion

GM said its Chevrolet Malibu posted a 77 percent gain from a year earlier to 16,439 units, topping the Camry’s 15,792 after the Toyota model fell 24 percent. Ford, which followed GM with incentives aimed at Toyota buyers, had a 49 percent rise for the Fusion, to 12,179.

Gains by Toyota rivals were “fairly marginal,” said Michael DiGiovanni, GM executive director of product, portfolio and brand strategy. Competitors probably will win more customers if questions about Toyota persist, he said on a conference call.

Light-vehicle sales at GM rose to 146,315 from 128,198 a year earlier. Ford climbed to 116,534 from 93,506.

Ford sales to fleet customers, such as rental car companies, more than doubled last month, while purchases by individual consumers fell 5 percent, the Dearborn, Michigan- based automaker said. Business buyers are increasingly attracted to models like the Fusion sedan because of improving resale values, Ford said.

“January retail sales to consumers were below our expectations,” Ken Czubay, Ford’s U.S. sales chief, said in a conference call. “We can’t seem to get traction in consumers’ minds except when there is a whole bunch of merchandising coupled with incentives.”

The Ford models with the top gains were the Crown Victoria, Taurus and Mustang.

Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler said sales dropped 57,143 from 62,157. Tokyo-based Honda said sales fell to 67,479 from 71,031. Yokohama, Japan-based Nissan climbed to 62,572 from 53,884.