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GM May sales edge up
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June 1, 2001: 6:00 p.m. ET
Slump may be ending as Ford, Chrysler sales fall but gain from Jan.-April levels
By Staff Writer Chris Isidore
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - General Motors Corp. posted an unexpected gain in U.S. sales in May, and while sales at Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group were off from year ago levels, they showed improvement from the first four months of the year, suggesting the U.S. auto industry is starting to climb out of its recent slump.
Overall, industry-wide sales in the month slipped 1.2 percent compared to a year earlier, according to figures from Autodata Inc. That still is enough to give May the best year-over-year comparison since last September, when comparisons were still positive. Industry sales are off 5.6 percent year-to-date.
General Motors, the world's largest automaker, posted car and light truck sales of 454,054 vehicles in the U.S. in May, up 0.3 percent from the May 2000 sales numbers. Vehicles sold per sales day of 17,464 was up nearly 16 percent from the sales pace from January through April. Including the heavy-truck sales, the company's sales gained 0.6 percent for the month to 459,050.
"The industry had a very good month in May and we believe GM will actually outperform the industry," said Paul Ballew, executive director of market and industry analysis for GM. "We expect to maintain that momentum as we head into the back half of the year."
Ballew conceded that pricing pressure and competition remains intense, as automakers are using new incentives to keep sales strong. But the news was good enough to lead GM to announce it would up its production plans slightly for the second quarter to 1.349 million vehicles, a gain of 11,000 cars and 6,000 trucks from previous estimates. But that figure is still down 14 percent from the 1.568 million vehicles it built in the same period a year ago.
Sales were not quite as strong at No. 2 automaker Ford Motor Co., and DaimlerChrysler AG, the U.S.-operation of the world's No. 3 automaker in terms of revenue. But even those companies showed some signs of turning around the recent sales slumps, with Chrysler seeing sales of its key minivan products up 20 percent from a year earlier, and Ford saying it sold a record number of its various sport/utility vehicle models.
Shares of Ford (F: up $0.24 to $24.59, Research, Estimates) followed shares of GM (GM: up $1.64 to $58.54, Research, Estimates) higher, although trading was off for U.S. shares of DaimlerChrysler (DCX: down $0.32 to $45.72, Research, Estimates)
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But even with the signs of improvement, the Big Three apparently will continue to lose market share as a group, although GM saw its market share edge up to 28.3 percent from 27.9 percent a year earlier, according to Autodata.
Imports show strength
The best gains were made by major importers, many of whom reported record sales for the month. Overall imports rose 8.1 percent for the month, while vehicles made here by overseas automakers other than DaimlerChrysler rose 7.4 percent, according to Autodata.
Toyota Motor Co., the fourth largest automaker in the U.S. market, set a monthly U.S. sales record, selling 167,167 vehicles between its Toyota and Lexus brands. Its market share rose a full percentage point to 10.4 percent as it continued to close the gap on No. 3 Chrysler. Toyota's overall sales reached about 80 percent of Chrysler sales, up from only two-thirds of Chrysler sales in May 2000 and just over half of Chrysler sales in May 1999.
American Honda, the second largest Japanese automaker here, set a May sales record and posted its second best sales month ever, but Nissan, the No. 3 Japanese carmaker, saw its May sales decline about 6 percent from year ago levels.
Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia posted their own monthly sales records, while German automakers Volkswagen, Audi and BMW all posted their best May sales in at least 15 years.
Tire problems dog Ford
While GM was increasing production targets for the quarter, Ford announced it would trim production further by keeping Ford Ranger plants in Minnesota and New Jersey closed an additional week to free up the supply of replacement tires to cover the company's recall of 13-million Firestone Wilderness AT tires announced in May.
The shutdown brings the cut in production due to the recall to 31,000 light trucks. The recall has also brought attacks on the safety of the Ford Explorer, its best-selling SUV, by tiremaker Bridgestone/Firestone, which said last month that it would no longer enter into sales agreements with Ford because it felt it was trying to mask its own safety problems by blaming faulty tires. Federal safety regulators have identified more than 170 U.S. deaths involving Ford vehicles and Firestone tires, most involving rollover accidents by Explorers after tire tread separations.
But Ford said that sales continued to build for its redesigned 2002 Explorer, which went on sale earlier this year. Ford sold 36,904 Explorers in May, up 21 percent from its April 2001 sales level, but off 16.5 percent from its May 2000 sales levels.
Overall Ford posted U.S. vehicle sales of 372,798, off 10.5 percent from the year-ago levels, as its market share in the month slipped to 23.2 percent from 25.5 percent a year ago. But its sales per selling day of 14,338 was up 15 percent from the sales pace set the first four months of this year.
Chrysler sees gains in minivans, plunge in SUVs
Chrysler Group saw U.S. sales of 207,487, off 8 percent from a year earlier. But vehicles per sales day of 7,980 was up 4 percent from the January to April figure. Its market share fell to 14.1 percent from 15 percent a year ago.
Much of the gain in minivan sales comes from the fact that a year ago the automaker was just about to introduce a newly-designed minivan model, which was widely seen as hurting year-ago model sales. But the new model minivans, which have been seen as having somewhat disappointing sales, had their best month in May. The top-line Chrysler Town & Country more than doubled sales from year-ago levels to set a May sales record.
But while minivans were doing well, the sales of SUVs fell by 22 percent, despite the introduction of a new smaller SUV, the Jeep Liberty. Part of the problem is the same as what minivans saw last year, as the Jeep Cherokee is being phased out. Its sales were off 33 percent.
But as GM and some other competitors gained market share in the segment, the Grand Cherokee saw its sales fall 38 percent while the Wrangler saw sales drop 15 percent. Without the introduction of the Liberty, Chrysler would have seen SUV sales drop by nearly a quarter compared to a year ago. 
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