U.S. auto sales slide as General Motors and Toyota miss estimates!
NEW YORK - July 1, 2009 - U.S. auto sales in June again failed to reach a 10 million annual pace as General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. fell short of analyst estimates, suggesting that the industry hasn’t started to rebound yet.
The annual rate fell to 9.69 million cars and light trucks last month, from 9.9 million in May and 13.7 million in June 2008, Autodata Corp. said. Total sales fell 28 percent, to 859,847 vehicles, the 20th straight monthly decline, the Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based company said.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had projected that the annual pace for June would climb above 10 million for the first time this year. GM blamed its worse-than-expected results on a new U.S. program to spur trade-ins of older vehicles, saying that kept some buyers on the sidelines. The company said its June 1 bankruptcy filing also scared off some customers.
“We are somewhat disappointed that the (figures) came in around 9.9 million,” Mike DiGiovanni, sales analyst at Detroit-based GM, told reporters today on a conference call before the final figures were tallied. “We’ve got these strong headwinds.”
Declines at GM, Toyota and Chrysler Group LLC that were wider than analysts had estimated, offset better-than-expected results at Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co.
Sales dropped 42 percent from a year earlier at Chrysler, 34 percent at GM and 32 percent at Toyota. Chrysler, which exited bankruptcy during June, cited an end to most sales to fleet customers such as rental companies for its drop.
The annual rate fell to 9.69 million cars and light trucks last month, from 9.9 million in May and 13.7 million in June 2008, Autodata Corp. said. Total sales fell 28 percent, to 859,847 vehicles, the 20th straight monthly decline, the Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based company said.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had projected that the annual pace for June would climb above 10 million for the first time this year. GM blamed its worse-than-expected results on a new U.S. program to spur trade-ins of older vehicles, saying that kept some buyers on the sidelines. The company said its June 1 bankruptcy filing also scared off some customers.
“We are somewhat disappointed that the (figures) came in around 9.9 million,” Mike DiGiovanni, sales analyst at Detroit-based GM, told reporters today on a conference call before the final figures were tallied. “We’ve got these strong headwinds.”
Declines at GM, Toyota and Chrysler Group LLC that were wider than analysts had estimated, offset better-than-expected results at Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co.
Sales dropped 42 percent from a year earlier at Chrysler, 34 percent at GM and 32 percent at Toyota. Chrysler, which exited bankruptcy during June, cited an end to most sales to fleet customers such as rental companies for its drop.
