Resilient consumers returned to auto dealer showrooms following last month’s 16-day federal government shutdown and likely helped October U.S. car and truck sales to their highest level since 2007.
Overall, automakers sold about 1.21 million cars and light trucks last month, a 10.6 percent increase from the same period a year ago, according to Autodata Corp.
October sales translated into a seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate of 15.23 million cars and trucks, up from 14.4 last October but down from 15.3 million in September.
Auto sales were mostly unaffected by the 16-day federal government shutdown at the beginning of the month and there may be minimal future sales impact from those Americans who delayed purchases because of the shutdown.
“At the beginning in the month we didn’t know what to expect,” said Bill Fay, group vice president and general manager of Toyota’s Toyota division, in a conference call with analysts and reporters. But Fay said the only real change was the cadence to auto sales last month, which started slow but picked up steam as the month wore on, particularly in the Washington D.C. area.
Domestic automakers, including a couple thousand sales from Tesla Motors Co., upped their collective share by 1.5 percentage points to 46 percent. Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., Kia Motors America and Hyundai Motor America all lost share in October.
General Motors Co. on Friday reported its October U.S. sales jumped 15.7 percent to 226,402, led by growing sales of its Malibu midsize car, Impala full-size car and Silverado and Sierra pickups.
Ford Motor Co. sales also surged 14 percent to 191,985, the Dearborn automaker’s best October retail sales month since 2004; and Chrysler Group LLC said sales rose 11 percent to 140,083, the Auburn Hills automaker’s best October since 2007 and the 43rd straight month of year-over-year sales gains.
Auto sales were mostly unaffected by the 16-day federal government shutdown at the beginning of the month and there may be minimal future sales impact from those Americans who delayed purchases because of the shutdown.
“It’s very difficult to see if there’s any pent-up demand rolling into November,” said John Felice, Ford’s vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service.
All four GM brands posted sales gains. Popular cars included the new Corvette, with sales up nearly 237 percent, to 3,929. Combined sales of the Silverado and Sierra pickups totaled 59,163, up about 11 percent.
Ford’s surge was aided by a 71 percent sales rise for its Fusion midsize car — the 21,740 sales was the Fusion’s best October showing ever — and a 38 percent jolt in sales for its Lincoln luxury brand.
F-Series pickup sales were up almost 13 percent to 63,803. It’s the sixth consecutive month F-Series sales have surpassed the 60,000 threshold; the last time that happened was 2006.
Sales of two small cars — the Focus and C-Max — dropped considerably in October.
Sales of Chrysler’s Ram pickup rose 18 percent to nearly 30,000 last month and sales of Dodge’s Durango SUV — yes, the one from those Ron Burgundy commercials — were up 59 percent to 5,120.
Sales of Jeep Cherokee, a vehicle delayed by about two months over quality concerns, totaled just 579. But Chrysler is now shipping Cherokees “following a meticulous focus on quality,” said Reid Bigland, Chrysler’s head of U.S. sales, in a statement Friday morning.
Chrysler’s Ram, Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler brands all posted sales gains in October; Fiat had a 1 percent sales decline.
Toyota Motor Corp. sales rose 8.8 percent, while American Honda Motor Co. Inc. said its October sales jumped 7.1 percent, as sales of the Honda brand rose 5.7 percent and Acura brand sales increased 17.5 percent. Acura posted best ever October results for its ILX, MDX and RDX vehicles.
Volkswagen of America Inc. said its October sales of 28,129 vehicles fell 18 percent from the same month in 2012.
Nissan Motor Co. sales climbed 14.2 percent to 91,108.
October U.S. auto sales will likely rise by double-digit percentages when automakers report sales figures Friday, and the total number of sales from January through October could top 13 million for the first time since 2007.
Edmunds.com estimates sales will rise 13 percent compared with last October. Kelley Blue Book says sales will climb 11.7 percent; J.D. Power and Associates and LMC Automotive projects a similar gain, when based on total volume and not accounting for selling days. This October has one more selling day than last October.
Total U.S. sales volume should equal 1.21 million to 1.23 million.
