U.S. Auto Sales Dreary: Market down 37.1 percent in January

It could hardly be called news last week as the world's auto manufacturers released U.S. sales figures for January. No analyst was predicting an immediate rebound from the moribund vehicle market of late 2008 given the deepening of the current recession and molasses-like credit market. Although the 37.1-percent overall sales drop for the month gave no indication the downward trend would reverse anytime soon, there's hope that the 27-year low monthly sales total of 656,881 would mark a bottom.

The Detroit 3 were among the worst performers for the month.

Although General Motors' 128,198 vehicles sold topped Toyota's sales of 117,287 units to lead the U.S. market, GM sales were down 48.9pct from January a year ago.

Ford/Lincoln/Mercury saw sales dip below 100k units in January to 90,131 - down 39.1pct. On-the-blocks subsidiary Volvo dragged that number down further to 41.6pct for FoMoCo overall. On the positive side, Ford did increase market share for the fourth straight month.

Chrysler, still working on the details of a partnership with Fiat, was clobbered to the tune of 54.8pct on sales of 62,157 vehicles.

Toyota, bleeding heavily in the U.S. and European markets, is now projecting a $4.95bn loss for the fiscal year ending March 31. That's triple original forecasts and represents the company's first operating loss in 70 years. In January, Toyota's U.S. sales were down 31.7pct.

With the lone exception of Sabaru, the other Japanese auto makers sustained heavy losses. In a bit of a hollow victory, American Honda (down 27.9pct to 71,031 units) actually pushed past Chrysler to fourth in total U.S. sales for January.

Nissan (down 29.7pct to 53,884 units), Mazda (off 27.3pct to 15,420), Mitsubishi (down 34.5pct to 4,730) and Suzuki (off 48.7pct to 3,655) rounded out the Nippon losses.

Of the German auto makers, BMW Group (including MINI and Rolls-Royce) and Volkswagen (with Audi and Bentley), both reported U.S. sales losses of less than 20pct. BMW sold 14,329 vehicles in January, down 15.5pct from January 2008. U.S. VW dealers moved 17,559, down 17.3pct.

Daimler AG sold 12,224 U.S. vehicles in January, down 35.5pct while Porsche sales dipped 36.1pct to 1,658.

On the brighter side of the January sales picture, there was good news from both Hyundai and Subaru.

The Hyundai Group posted an 8.9-pct gain on total sales of 46,608 units. The Hyundai brand moved 24,512 vehicles in January, up a healthy 14.3pct over January 2008. Leading models were the Sonata sedan (up 85.5pct to 8,508 units) and the Santa Fe crossover (up 35.2pct to 5,024). The company's 10 year/100,000 mile "American's Best Warranty" program plus an innovative new return policy have apparently gotten consumer's attention. The latter allows persons financing or leasing a new Hyundai to return the car during the first year should the buyer lose his income. Sister brand Kia saw a sales increase of 3.5pct.

Meanwhile, Subaru had a solid January with sales up 8.0pct to 12,194 units.