June vehicle sales crash--hard!
No surprise here: June vehicle sales went head-first into a brick wall. The only survivor of the 'Big 6' automakers is Honda. Some of the smaller brands that focus on smaller vehicles also showed some gains, Subaru, Mazda, VW and Suzuki being several. Check out the grizzly results on
AutoObserver's monthly tally.
June Car Sales: U.S. Buyers Almost Veer Off the Road
Here's
Inside Line's take:
Ford, General Motors and Toyota Show 20 Percent Sales Drop in June and
Honda Shines as Domestic Auto Industry Slumps
- Permalink | Comments (8)
- Posted by: Bob Holland July 2, 2008, 5:58 AM
- Categories: Auto Industry, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, Volkswagen
It's crazy how poor Mitsubishi's showing last month was - 2688 lancers and 1629 galants (for reference, ~12000 Mazda3's and ~40000 civics were sold last month). Even Suzuki outperformed mitsubishi, and how many suzuki dealers are out there?
I drove past my local Honda dealer (which is very large) Sunday evening and they had 2 Civics on the lot, an Si sedan and a Hybrid. Of course now all their Civics have a "$995 market adujustment" added on to the bottom line. Greed is just so common these days.
It is annoying but I wouldn't call it greed.
If a model wasn't selling well, everyone would expect a discount.
Why can't the dealer charge a premium on one that is selling well?
GM seems to be having a turnaround. Down only 8% from last year (although this was the time when sales began dropping dramatically throughout the market). The Malibu is up 129%?!! The wallflower HHR is up 70%? Now if only GM could do for the Cobalt what they did for the Malibu. Things don't look to be as cheery at Ford right now. And Chrysler doesn't seem to have much of a future.
Toyota seems to be exeperiencing the downside of rapid growth in the US auto market. They're increase in market share seems to be eating away at the "our cars run forever" stigma.
firstwagon, I'd call it greed. I don't expect a commodity product to sell above list price.
"It is annoying but I wouldn't call it greed."
How is charging $995 extra for no reason not greed? $1000 to me is much more than annoying!
"If a model wasn't selling well, everyone would expect a discount."
Not really. I would of course try to negotiate and more than likely the dealer would go along with it if its a slow seller.
Subaru was up, not bad in a tough month. Mostly due to the hit new Forester.
Mitsu is in dire straits. You have to wonder if they're gonna make it. The Lancer is still new, small cars are setting records, why are they so down?
"Mitsu is in dire straits. You have to wonder if they're gonna make it. The Lancer is still new, small cars are setting records, why are they so down?"
Although the Lancer is a great small car the rest of the Mitsu line is lacking. The current Galant is a half baked effort.