Edmunds.com Predicts Lower April Sales
With the month of April nearing its end, the auto industry is once again expecting sales figures to be posted by car manufacturers both domestic and foreign. Not waiting for the official sales figures from car manufacturers, Edmunds.com has already announced their predicted sales out put for the three biggest U.S. car manufacturers and the three biggest Asian brands.
For the total output of the U.S. auto industry, the premier online source for auto information predicts a 3 percent decrease as compared to April of 2006 if the computation is adjusted to compensate for the two selling days that this year’s April has less than last year’s.
Jesse Toprak, the Executive Director of Industry Analysis for Edmunds.com, has this to say about the firm’s predictions: “This month, due to two less selling days, a decrease in production and reduced fleet sales by domestic manufacturers, we will have one of the weakest Aprils in recent history for total industry sales. Surprisingly, even with high gas prices, large SUVs were the only category to post a significant gain -- up nearly 18 percent because of high incentive spending. Minivans were hit the hardest, down 25 percent, because Ford and GM no longer selling minivans and the growth in crossover SUV sales.” Indeed, the crossover market has been steadily growing in recent memory with car manufactures producing more and more additional CUV models.
As the current trend continues, Edmunds.com predicts that the U.S.’ Big Three will continue their losing ways for this month. “The domestics are continuing to see declines in sales with Ford being hit the hardest, struggling to have shoppers even consider its vehicles,” says Michelle Krebs of Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com. This declining sales will translate to lowering share in the U.S. auto market while foreign brands continually increase their hold in the market as experts in the auto industry has expected.
For Chrysler, Edmunds.com predicts an April sales figure of 171,000 units. That figure is 9.8 percent lower than their sales for the past year during the same month. The company is then expected to corner 13.3 percent of the U.S. market and such a figure is considered to be an improvement compared to their market share for the same period last year.
For the Ford Motor Company, Edmunds.com predicts the heaviest blow among all U.S. auto manufacturers. It is predicted that Ford will sell about 202,000 vehicles on the way to posting a 21.7 percent decrease as compared to April of 2006. This will make Ford take the spot below Toyota in terms of market share with only 15.6 percent of the market. This figure is lower than their 17.9 percent market share last year for the month of April and lower than their March 2007 market share of 16.7 percent.
For General Motors, which is currently the largest car manufacturer in the world, Edmunds.com predicts an 11.4 percent sales reduction compared to April of 2006. While the market share for General Motors will increase to 23.3 percent compared to last month’s 22.6 percent, it is still lower than last April 2006’s 23.6 percent U.S. auto market share.
For the Japanese brands, Edmunds.com predicts Honda to drop sales by as much as 8.9 percent compared to April 2006 sales. While sales for this year’s April is lower than last year, the predicted 127,000 vehicles that Honda will sell for the month is enough to increase their market share from last month’s 9.4 percent to 9.8 percent,
For Nissan, the resilient Japanese brand which epitomizes the resistance of their Nissan blower motor resistors, Edmunds.com predicts a reduction of 4.7 percent for sales for this year’s April compared to last year. With that, the market share of Nissan is expected to reach 6.4 percent. That is lower than last month’s 7.2 percent while higher than April 2006’s 6.0 percent market share.
For the surging Toyota, Edmunds.com predicts a reduction of 3.2 percent compared to April 2006 sales. While sales may be down, Toyota's market share is expected to increase to 16.5 percent. That figures is an improvement over April 2006’s 15.2 percent and last month’s 15.8 percent market share.
Ryan Thomas is a native of Denver, Colorado. He grew up in a family of car aficionados. He now resides in Detroit where he owns a service shop and works part time as a consultant for a local automotive magazine.
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