Sales of Chrysler vehicles increased 20% in April as the automaker recorded its 25th straight month of year-over-year increases, while Ford said its sales declined 5% for the month and GM sales fell 8.2% from a year ago.
Chrysler is expected to have gained market share in April while Ford and GM may have lost market share as Toyota rebounded and Volkswagen gained ground.
Sales for Toyota, which was struggling to recover from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami a year ago, increased 11.6%, coming within 2,300 of equaling Ford as the second-highest selling automaker during the month.
“Toyota is hitting its stride with a new Camry and an expanded Prius lineup which is appealing to fuel price conscious consumers,” Edmunds.com senior analyst Jessica Caldwell said.
There were three fewer selling days in April 2012 than in April 2011, only the second time in the past 10 years that has occurred.
Several Chrysler models recorded their best April results ever or since 2008. They include the Fiat 500, Chrysler 200 mid-size sedan, Dodge Challenger muscle car and Jeep Wrangler SUV. Sales for the Dodge Avenger mid-size sedan increased 47%, its best month ever.
“This business is all about product and the quality and fuel efficiency of our current vehicle lineup has never been better, which is evident in our results,” Reid Bigland, head of U.S. sales for Chrysler, said in a statement.
Ford's U.S. sales for April totaled 180,350, compared with 189,778 last year.
Sales of the Fusion mid-size sedan increased 2%, while sales of the Focus compact increased 12.5% compared with the same month last year. However, sales of Ford’s subcompact Fiesta dropped 43.9% and the Escape SUV, soon to replaced by a redesigned model, declined 20%.
Ken Czubay, Ford’s U.S. vice president of U.S. marketing sales and service, said customers are picking the Focus compact car over the Fiesta subcompact. Ford also is in the process of selling down its Ford Escape to make way for a new model and is increasing production of key models.
“We are eagerly looking forward to the increase in Focus production,” Czubay said.
At GM, Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet posted declines ranging from 8.4% at Chevrolet to 25% at Cadillac. GMC sales rose 4.5%.
Don Johnson, vice president for GM’s U.S. sales operations, said the company’s fleet sales declined 25% from a year earlier. Retail sales – those made directly to consumers by dealers – were flat with April 2011.
The silver lining is that sales of GM’s full-size pickups – Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra – rose 4.8% and 19.7% respectively.
Johnson said GM has raised its forecast for U.S. sales this year from between 13.5 million and 14 million to a range of 14 million to 14.5 million.
Volkswagen said its U.S. sales increased 31.5% in April, as it sold 37,525 cars and crossovers. The German automaker said the results were its best for April since 1971.
Toyota said its U.S. sales increased 11.6%, Nissan’s sales declined 0.3% Honda’s sales declined 2.2% and Hyundai’s sales increased 1%.
Toyota sold 178,044 cars and trucks in April as sales of its full-size Camry increased 20.9%. Prius sales, which now include three separate models, more than doubled to 25,168
Industry sales in April were expected to increase from a year ago because of declining unemployment, pent up demand, improving consumer confidence, unseasonably warm weather and strong fleet sales, even though overall economic growth slowed during the first three months of the year.
“Over time we believe that strength in the manufacturing sector and stronger retail sales will continue to lead to more job creation,” Johnson said. “That’s gong to help more consumers put the recession behind them, gain even more confidence and drive vehicle sales higher for both the industry and for GM this year.”
But when asked if GM is losing sales to competitors such as Chrysler, Toyota and Volkswagen – all of whom reported substantial sales increases despite having three fewer days to sell – Johnson said it would take more than one month’s data to know.
“There’s no doubt the Japanese are back in the market," he said. "They are being particularly aggressive in the fleet market."
The U.S. Commerce Department said Friday that the country’s economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.2% in the January-March quarter, compared with a 3% gain in the final quarter of 2011.
Still, consumers spent at the fastest pace in more than a year, driven in part by higher than expected auto sales.
"We can expect the auto sales rate to stay elevated through most of the rest of the year, even as downside risks — like political and fiscal uncertainty in the U.S. and slowing economies in Europe and China — continue to loom,” Edmunds.com chief economist Lacey Plache said in a report last week.
Edmunds.com last week increased its forecast for U.S. industry sales for the year to 14.4 million cars and trucks, up from 13.6 million.
“The momentum built by the recovering economy and compelling product choices in the first quarter continued to fuel new vehicle sales in April,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for TrueCar.com said last week in a report.
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