- By Mayank Marwah
The U.S. auto sales for May remained quiet despite it being one of the strongest months of the year as per the history books. The industryas momentum got hurt badly as Americaas top automakers General Motors (GM) and Ford (NYSE:F) took a nosedive on account of weak sedan sales and fewer selling days. Sales were down for most of the automakers when compared with the same period last year.
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The intrinsic value of GM
Seasonally adjusted selling rate stood at 17.3 million vehicles, which was higher than April, but down on a year over year basis. May sales plunged 6% to 1.53 million cars mainly because of weakness in demand observed in certain segments and two fewer selling days. The worldas major auto players Toyota (TM) and Volkswagen (VLKAY) had a quiet month as sales dropped 9.6% and 17%.
Letas dig in deep and know in detail the performance of the Detroit Three and other automakers.
Performance of U.S. automakers
General Motors witnessed 18% sales drop to 240,450 vehicles, which was much steeper than expectations. The companyas major brands, namely Chevrolet and Buick, saw huge declines. Cruze Compact sedan saw 30% sales dip in May, which was a year ago, the companyas top selling car. On the contrary, Malibu midsize sedan gained 13% year over year. However, rental car sales plunged 49% for the automaker.
Crosstown rival Fordas sales for May dropped 6% to 235,997 vehicles. While F-series pickup sales climbed 9%, car sales fell a mammoth 26%. However, Lincoln brand sales surged 7%. While SUV sales remained flat, truck sales rose 9%. Shifting gears, sedan sales were down. Fusion and Focus saw 21.5% and 27% sales decline. On the other hand, Escape witnessed 5.5% sales rise.
Chrysler (FCA), the third largest U.S. automaker, managed to get a 1.1% May sales gain to 204,452 vehicles on the back of solid performance of vans, pickup trucks and SUVs, which somewhat compensated for the poor performance of other car segments. This was the companyas finest May sales in 11 years. While the Jeep brand registered a 14% year over year sales gain, Jeep Compass posted a colossal 116% sales hike. In contrast, Ram pickup truck sales dropped 3% but it hardly has an impact on the companyas overall performance. FCA was the only prime U.S. automaker on which the analysts had not estimated any sort of decline.
Performance of other automakers
The worldas top U.S. automaker Toyota reported a sales decline, down 9.6% to 219,339 vehicles. Car sales dropped 16%, while sales of SUVs and trucks plunged 2.5%. The companyas cars share plummeted to 49% from 53% in May 2015.