April showed a shift in consumer trends as small cars increased for most large automakers. General Motors MI dealers contributed to the almost 50 percent increase in compact cars for the month.
DETROIT, M.I. –
MI dealers may have seen a shift in the types of vehicles customers were interested in during the month of April. Gas prices seem to have been the biggest influence this month as the national average has reached almost $4 per gallon. Regions such as New England, the Midwest and the West Coast already have surpassed the national average and increased above $4 per gallon.
For this reason, it is no surprise consumers focused most of their attention on smaller cars that are more fuel efficient instead of trucks, which were a bigger percentage of sales for automakers like Ford in March.
[Rewind:
Michigan Chevrolet Dealers Hear GM Up 97,000 Units for 2011 Even with Shift in March Sales Numbers]
General Motors took back its market share from Ford who reported 16.3 percent while GM took 20.1 percent total market share. Total sales increase for GM from this time last year was 26.6 percent while its cars percentage increased 49.8 percent. One of the vehicles that was in high demand for General Motors was the Chevrolet Cruze, which offers 36 mpg highway or 42 mpg highway on the Cruze ECO model.
“Rising fuel prices have led many to rethink their vehicle of choice,” said Don Johnson, GM Vice President for U.S. sales, in a statement made to
The New York Times.
With Ford’s drop in market share from 17 percent in March, the corporation saw an increase in total sales of 16.3 percent. Ford did see an increase in cars at 26.1 percent with its MI dealers seeing the high demand for the new Fiesta and Focus.
“Dealers were telling us they were selling them right off of the convoy truck,” said Ken Czubay, Ford’s Head of U.S. sales and marketing, in a
New York Times article.
Chrysler saw a 22.5 percent increase bringing its market share to just over 10 percent. Chrysler not only increased in sales and market share but also reported selling 882 Fiat 500 Micro-Cars. This was the first Fiat model that was introduced into the U.S. market.
Toyota Motor Corp on the other hand saw an overall increase of only 1.3 percent from last April with its total car sales actually decreasing 2.9 percent. Low inventories due to the Japan crisis seem to be the cause as popular small cars such as the Prius and Corolla subcompact were in very short supply. At this point, Toyota has less than a 10-day supply of Prii vehicles, but the company plans on being back to normal production by the end of the year.
The following is how other automakers ranked at the end of April:
· Hyundai: Overall increase of 40.3 percent with a 52.3 percent increase in cars including the popular all-new Elantra
· Nissan: Overall increase of 12.2 percent with a 7.5 percent increase in cars.
· Honda: Overall increase of 9.8 percent with a 10.8 percent increase in cars.
The annual vehicle sales rate has been above 13 million vehicles for the third consecutive month, which is a feat in its own right especially as the average incentive spending has dropped $500 per vehicle from this time last year. MI dealers are recognizing that even without incentives, the automotive market seems to be continuing to increase.
MI Auto Times covers all Michigan automotive news all the time, featuring newly released vehicle recall information, relevant Michigan automaker news, vehicle ratings and comparisons, and everything else auto-related Michigan and world readers need to know. Got a hot tip? Send your news tips to news@miautotimes.com or connect with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MichiganAutoTimes. [Source(s): The New York Times, MSNBC, Yahoo News, Motor Intelligence]
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