Cleveland, Ohio – Auto sales slipped less than 1% in August, a figure that automakers and industry watchers are calling exceptional because of an oddity in the 2015 calendar.
Labor Day falls uncharacteristically in September this year, pulling the traditional end-of-summer discounts into this months. Losing that hot weekend was likely the difference between a gain and a loss for the month. And adjusted for those changes, sales hit their highest levels since 2006.
The other trends for the year remained on track for August – high truck sales coupled with miserable numbers for cars.
Breaking down the numbers:
- General Motors – 270,480, -0.7%. Though flattish overall, GM’s numbers had a lot of variation. Chevrolet retail sales climbed 7.5%, but the planned reduction in fleet sales sapped results, driving the full brand down 1.5%. A year ago, 22% of GM’s August sales went to rental fleets and other group buyers. That figure was down to less than 17% last month. Still, broader market trends asserted themselves as trucks and crossovers did well and compact cars suffered. Sales of the Chevy Cruze were down 37%. At Cadillac, only the oversized Escalade ESV SUV and SRX crossover gained with the cars and smaller SUVs declining. Crossovers also helped Buick post a minimal sales gain as car sales tanked.
- Ford Motor Co. – 234,237, 5.4%. A 4.7% sales jump might not sound impressive, but that’s all Ford’s F-150 needed to post a great month. Sales of the redesigned, aluminum-bodied truck have been depressed most of the year as plants ramped up production. Without that weight pulling down overall numbers, other Ford products shined as well – most notably commercial vans. Transit sales were up nearly 10x as that vehicle lineup replaces the bulk of Econonline van sales. Combined, Econoline, Transit, and Transit Connect vans were up more than 54% during the month. On the car side, only the Mustang and Fiesta posted gains. Crossover and SUVs were up 12%.
- Toyota Motor Co. – 224,381, -8.8%.Toyota/Scion brand car sales were down 16,998 units in August, roughly the monthly production volume of a mid-sized auto plant. Once popular vehicles such as the Corolla, Camry, and Prius all sank, with only the subcompact Yaris posting a gain, and that came mostly because of the algebra of small numbers. The Yaris’ 64.1% gain sounds impressive until you see that it was only 335 more cars than a year ago (858 units, up from 523). The only bright spots for Toyota were the continued success of the Tacoma small pickup and the Lexus crossover/SUV lineup. A 15.2% jump for big Lexus products, driven almost entirely by the new NX small crossover, helped pull that brand up 2.1%, overcoming losses for Lexus cars.
- FCA US LLC – 201,672, 1.7%. Chrysler eked out a continuation of its nearly two-year-long sales gain. The usual suspects – Jeep Renegade, Chrysler 200, Ram pickups – were responsible for the gains while Dodge cars continued their decline. Though not as stellar as FCA’s gains from earlier in the year, when it was growing in the high single digits, August increases were enough to post the best results since 2002.
- Honda Motor America – 155,491, -6.9%. Like Toyota, Honda makes its living off of fuel efficient cars, and those vehicles weren’t selling this summer. Honda crossover and SUV sales were up 6.9%, as the new HR-V crossover, Odyssey minivan, and CR-V mid-sized crossover overcame weakness for the Pilot SUV and the outgoing Ridgeline pickup. On the car side, everything was down, even the subcompact Fit (2,901 units, down 52.1%) that had been selling well earlier in the year. And the company didn’t get much help from Acura as slight growth for the mid-sized RDX crossover couldn’t overcome a 26.9% decline for the larger MDX. One bright spot was the Acura TLX small sedan, up 90.4%. All other Acura cars declined.
- Nissan Group – 133,351, -0.8%. Nissan posted very GM-like numbers. Cars were down 6.3% while trucks were up 7.9%. Like GM, overall sales were down slightly. Highlights were slight gains for the Altima sedan in a very tough market, continued growth of the Rogue and Murano crossovers, and solid growth for the NV commercial van line.
- Hyundai/Kia – 130,909, 5.0%.The one thing that Hyundai and its sister company Kia were able to do last month was control the bleeding on cars. With flattish numbers for the subcompact Hyundai Accent, mid-sized Hyundai Sonata, and compact Hyundai Elantra set the company up to experience gains from its crossovers and SUVs. The Santa Fe was up 21%, while Kia’s Sedona minivan sales nearly quadrupled.
- Volkswagen – 32,332. -8.1%. VW continues to suffer from having only one truly hot model – the Golf. Between its GTI, electric, and wagon variants, the car was up 86.2%. The only other VW vehicles in the black were the Tiguan and Toureg crossovers, and in the case of the Toureg, the 0.4% increase represented a rise of only four cars. The Beetle, EOS, Passat, CC, and Jetta were all down at least 18%.
Source: Automakers