Light Truck and SUV Blogs

Well, the June new vehicle sales statistics are out, and it doesn’t look good for Detroit’s big three. All three manufacturers reported a decline in June sales compared to a year ago.

GM had its worst month in nine years as its sales of automobiles and light trucks fell almost 25 percent. Its market share dropped to 21.7 percent (its lowest since August 1998 according to Autodata).

Sales at Ford fell 8.2 percent to 245,939.

DaimlerChrysler’s sales declined 1.8 percent to 202,966.

While the big three reported losses, it was exactly the opposite for Japanese auto manufacturers. All three Japanese manufacturers reported increases in sales.

Several things appear to have helped this recent surge in Japanese new vehicle sales. The yen is weak (it costs less US dollars to buy a vehicle that was manufactured in Japan). Gas prices are high (consumers are looking more into more fuel efficient vehicles – and Japanese manufacturers have more vehicles in this category).

What was most alarming for Detroit was light truck and SUV sales. GM reported a drop in truck and SUV sales of 22.9 percent (a drop of 23.5 percent for Silverado sales). Ford F-series sales remained flat. By contrast, Toyota reported that it more than doubled sales of the full-size Tundra pickup.

It appears that incentives will increase this summer as auto manufacturers fiercely compete for truck and SUV sales. Although increasing incentives to help boost sales would mean less profit margin for the automakers, it could mean more new vehicles (that can be accessorized) being sold.

And wouldn’t we all like to see that happen?

Thanks for reading!

Joe Escobar