Auto sales face steep decline for American Cars
July 4, 2008
Portland, Maine (WiredPRNews.com) — So far in the month of June, auto sales have seen a remarkable decline as Americans virtually shunned SUVs and pickups due to the ever-increasing fuel prices amidst the weak economy. Due to rising gas prices, there has been a sharp decline in the ticket price of new vehicles as automakers have an insufficient supply of fuel-efficient cars.
The readings of sales from Autodata showed plummeting sales with an annual rate of 13.6 million vehicles sold on a monthly basis in comparison to 14.3 million sold during the month of May indicating poor sales across the board. According to the survey, these statistics set a record for weakest sales in quite some time.
With unadjusted sales falling to 18%, this shows a sharp drop in price – the sharpest, in fact, since October 2002. This decline was worse than the 12% estimation by Edmunds.com, a sales tracker. However, this forecast was better than JD Power and Associates who estimated low sales with an annual rate of 12.5 million. Given the shortage of fuel efficient cars, even the Asian markets were hit by poor sales.
The Asian markets were comparatively better than the Big Three U.S. car makers that were caught unaware with the changing buying patterns of consumers. The Asian brands were successful in capturing 46.2% of the total sales while edging 45.8% sales to U.S. brands. Almost the same situation took place in May, leading twice to a lag of U.S. brands behind the Asian brands in the American market.
The rest of the sales were made by the European brands leaving the Big Three in a weak position in comparison to overseas markets. Until last month, there was never a month where buyers preferred Asian and European makes in comparison to the American brands. It was General Motors (GM) that retained its number one position staying neck in neck with Toyota.
Wired Business Reporter
