General Motors Corp., the No. 1 U.S. auto maker in terms of volume, posted a 0.28% sales boost during the month compared to September 2006 despite a pull-back in sales to fleet buyers, such as rental-car companies. GM got a lift from a host of new products, including large crossovers such as the GMC Acadia, and tactical sales incentives on pickup trucks and large sport-utility vehicles. GM shares rose $1, or 2.8%, in New York Stock Exchange trading to close at $37.05.
Ford Motor Co., however, suffered a 21% decline in sales, as slumping demand for truck models such as the Explorer SUV and the F-Series pickup offset more robust sales of new crossover vehicles such as the Ford Edge. Still, Ford shares rose on the Big Board to close at $8.57, up 4.1%.
Toyota Motor Corp., now No. 2 in the U.S. market, suffered a 4.4% decline in sales, as sales of Toyota brand SUVs skidded 9%. Among other significant players, Chrysler LLC said sales fell 5.4%, while Honda Motor Co. reported a 9.4% increase in sales, powered by a 27% jump in sales of the Accord sedan, including a redesigned Accord introduced early in the month.
The overall seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales equaled 16.23 million vehicles during the month, according to Autodata Corp. The result was reasonably better than many analysts and auto-company officials had been expecting, after August's relatively weak showing. But the latest sales pace was still well below the trend set over the course of the decade and into the early months of this year. Most analysts now expect total light-vehicle sales in 2007 to crawl to 16 million vehicles, well below the 16.7 million rate that is generally considered healthy.
These are terrible numbers and show the consumer is still pulling back. It makes me wonder about the strength of last month's durable goods personal consumption expenditures which showed a strong increase. This was despite the drop in home and auto sales.
