Auto sales drop in April

Posted on May 1st, 2009 • by Bill Cawthon

April’s seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate (SAAR) dropped back to 9.32 million light vehicles, a half-million-unit decline from March 2009 and a 5.2 million-unit drop from April 2008. It’s the second-lowest SAAR since the early 1980s and it may temper hopes that the market is rebounding. Analysts had been looking for a SAAR in the 9.8 million unit range.

Based on numbers reported by manufacturers today, a total of 819,540 cars and light trucks were sold or leased in April, a 34.4 percent drop from April 2008. The decline was fairly evenly split between passenger cars, down 34.2 percent, and light trucks, down 34.5 percent.

Year-to-date (YTD) sales are now 37.4 percent behind the first four months of last year.

General Motors retained the top spot, while Toyota, stung by a 41.9 percent shortfall, dropped to third for the month, behind Ford. It’s the first month Ford has beaten Toyota in more than a year. Toyota still leads Ford in YTD sales.

Chrysler dropped to fifth behind Honda in the monthly totals, but still retains a slim YTD lead.

For the second consecutive month, no automaker reported improved sales. Subaru fared best, down just 6.69 percent, followed by Hyundai, Volkswagen and Kia.

Chrysler had the largest decline of the major players, but Mitsubishi and Suzuki posted worse results, down 55.9 percent and 73.7 percent, respectively. Sales of Daimler’s tiny Smart dropped 49.9 percent.

Chrysler recorded the largest drop in market share, giving up 2.47 percent. Toyota wasn’t far behind, shedding 1.99 percent. GM added 0.38 percent to its share and Ford gained 0.68 percent. Honda was the month’s big winner with a 1.50 percent add.

There were bits of good news for Chrysler fans: The Wrangler is still hot, outselling every Ford and General Motors SUV or crossover except the Ford Escape. It’s again the best-selling traditional SUV and trails only the CR-V, RAV4 and Escape in the crowded SUV/CUV segment.

Honda claimed the top spot in the minivan market for April, but still lags the Chrysler minivans in YTD sales. The Town & Country was second for the month and holds the same place after the first four months of 2009. The Caravan came in third but still holds the overall lead. The Toyota Sienna took fourth place in both monthly and YTD results.

Honda also claimed the top spot overall as the Accord outsold the Ford F-Series pickup. The Ford still holds the lead in YTD sales as it’s the only light vehicle to break the 100,000 sales mark so far this year.

Ford’s Fusion was the best-selling American-badged car in April and came within 213 units of matching the fourth-place Corolla. Both the Accord and Civic outsold the Camry last month. In YTD sales, the Fusion is now ahead of the Impala and just 3,466 sales behind the Malibu.

Anyone who doubts Chrysler has a rough road ahead need only look at GM’s “dead men walking.” Sales at Pontiac plunged 54.9 percent in April with only 10,838 sales. Even Chrysler did better than that. Dodge outsold the combined total sales of Buick, Cadillac, Hummer, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn. For the first four months of this year, Hummer sales are down by more than two-thirds and Saturn sales are off nearly 60 percent. With the factories stilled, public perception is likely to worsen, meaning May and June sales could be abysmal. One of Chrysler’s biggest tasks is rebuilding sales to a sustainable level as quickly as possible.

For the next two months, while the attorneys posture in the courtroom and bill their millions, the leadership of the new company needs to be seriously polishing a message that will give consumers confidence enough to return to the showrooms. While Lee Iacocca wasn’t perfect, he was one heckuva pitchman.