Toyota Passes Ford in July sales for 2nd in US Options

[dauss]

Toyota takes aim at No. 1 position

Toyota continued its relentless march to the top of the auto industry in July, edging Ford Motor Co. for the first time in U.S. monthly vehicle sales to finish second to General Motors Corp.

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. had its best month ever, selling 241,826 vehicles in its Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands to nip all of Ford's brands by 1,535 units.

Ford still holds a big lead over Toyota for the year and is likely to outsell Toyota in some months, but George Magliano, research director for industry forecaster Global Insight, says the handwriting is on the wall.

"It might be five years, but they'll overtake Ford in the U.S. Toyota is expanding in North America, opening new plants, and Ford is consolidating," Magliano said.

"That's the trend. It won't be this year, but it's an eventuality."

Ford declined to comment on being upstaged by Toyota, and Irv Miller, Toyota's vice president of external affairs, tried to downplay the significance.

"We don't expect this situation to continue," Miller said. "One dot on the line doesn't make a trend. We don't think it's a sustainable position in the immediate future."

Toyota made similar statements before it passed the Chrysler Group earlier this year. Chrysler is the U.S. unit of DaimlerChrysler AG.

Asked if Toyota could stay in front of Ford, Miller said, "That's for the marketplace to decide."

Through July, Ford sold 1.78 million cars and light trucks in the U.S., and Toyota 1.46 million. Ford, however, is off nearly 10 percent this year, and Toyota is up 10 percent, reflecting the changing landscape of the auto industry. In particular, Toyota is getting a boost from its reputation for fuel efficiency.

Globally, Toyota already is No. 2 in vehicle sales and is poised to overtake GM this year or next.

A year ago, domestic manufacturers were giddy over the success of employee discount sales, which pushed industry sales to an all-time monthly high of 1.8 million vehicles.

Compared to July 2005, GM's sales fell 22 percent for the month to 406,298, Ford's were down 34 percent to 240,291 and DaimlerChrysler also fell 34 percent to 171,940. Industry sales declined 17.4 percent to 1.49 million.

The Chrysler Group took the biggest hit, falling 37 percent to 150,349 vehicles and slipping behind American Honda for the month. The Honda and Acura brands combined to sell 151,804.

Chrysler slipped despite being the only manufacturer to revive the employee-pricing offer, which cuts thousands off sticker prices. Chrysler announced Tuesday it would extend the offer until the end of August on 2006 models.

CNW Marketing Research, which tracks industry spending on incentives, said Chrysler spent the most of any major manufacturer in July, $4,153 per vehicle, versus $4,029 at Ford and $3,368 at GM.

Chrysler sales executive Michael Manley said that last year, with all three domestic manufacturers touting employee pricing, the sales promotions were "absolutely unavoidable" in the media. With Chrysler acting alone, it took time to get the attention of consumers.

"We were gaining momentum toward the end of the month," Manley said. "We're relatively pleased with where we are."

CNW President Art Spinella credited GM with sticking to a value-pricing strategy announced in January that included lower sticker prices and fewer incentives. GM has cut incentives by more than $1,200 per vehicle the past year.

Spinella said that has cost GM some sales but contributed to a $1.2 billion operating profit in the second quarter.

"They were able to stick with it and not splurge on incentives," he said. "With value pricing, they're not as concerned about what their competitors are charging."

Ford has adopted a similar strategy, adding standard features to new models and cutting sticker prices in an attempt to kick the costly incentive habit.

But Spinella said Toyota raised its incentive spending to nearly $3,000 per vehicle in July, 10 percent higher than a year ago, driving more business to Toyota showrooms.

"Somebody who's getting $500 off a Toyota feels like they're getting a great deal," he said. "It might take $5,000 off a domestic model to have the same impact."

Toyota's Miller disputed Spinella's number, saying, "We rarely agree with Art's statistics. It's an ongoing debate."

Sales of Toyota's passenger cars rose 20 percent in July, but Miller said car models had "virtually no incentives."

"Obviously, the energy issues are real," he said. "When these issues become important, Toyota generally does pretty well because of our reputation for fuel economy and value."

Toyota's truck sales rose slightly, and Miller said trucks carried higher incentives, though he wouldn't say how much.

Honda's car sales grew 5 percent and its trucks rose 7 percent. Executive Vice President Dick Colliver said Honda is benefiting from a history of fuel efficiency that dates to 1970.

"High gas prices, meanwhile, hurt the most popular and profitable models for domestic manufacturers, their gas-guzzling full-size pickups.

Ford's F-Series pickup plunged 46 percent to 68,982 from a record month last year. The F-Series is down 12 percent for the year to 469,159.

GM's large pickups were down 30 percent for the month to 96,243 and are off nearly 22 percent for the year, but redesigned versions are scheduled to arrive in late fall that analysts expect will boost sales.

The Dodge Ram pickup was off 33 percent in July to 32,793 and is down 12 percent for the year.

Nissan was the only major Japanese manufacturer whose sales fell in July, declining 19 percent to 86,408. Nissan is down 8 percent for the year but expects new models due later this year to perk up sales.

Toyota, Lexus, Scion > Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin in sales

[chook]

ford is hiring design engineers like crazy, its an efficiency market now, and toyota does a damn better job at it.

[prefix]

Fords are just pieces of crap. I've never known anyone that owns a ford over 200,000 miles. We took my camry apart at 300,000 miles and the cylinders still had cross-hatching.

[woody]

Fords are just pieces of crap. I've never known anyone that owns a ford over 200,000 miles. We took my camry apart at 300,000 miles and the cylinders still had cross-hatching.

i have a 1993 ford ranger with 210,000 miles

lets meet so you can say you know some that owns a ford with over 200,000 miles

[dauss]

YMMV. I've heard good things about Ford trucks, but it looks like people are starting to buy more fuel efficient cars. The cars that Ford makes is a different story. I had a Contour, and it was a total shit hole.

[Dogmeat]

Yet another testament as to how the UAW has completley fucked America over

[Psykopath]

Yet another testament as to how the UAW has completley fucked America over

...Beacause they won't let Ford make more fuel effecient cars during a time when such cars are in demand...?

[chook]

...Beacause they won't let Ford make more fuel effecient cars during a time when such cars are in demand...?

You can't blame the UAW for sales loss.

[Dogmeat]

You can't blame the UAW for sales loss.

In part you can, yes ...

Shitty "Union Quality" tarnished the reputation of domestic auto makers long ago, and while since the 70's they have greatly improved quality, they still trail behind the foreign manufacturers as far as build quality goes, which is a huge reason they lose sales to them ....

Any way I look at it, the UAW has fucked America over It should be abolished and outlawed, it's leadership slain and their corpses strung up for all to see what happens when you are a corrupt union leader

[Hartmann]

Fords are just pieces of crap. I've never known anyone that owns a ford over 200,000 miles. We took my camry apart at 300,000 miles and the cylinders still had cross-hatching.

I have/had a Ford with 200,000+ miles on it...

[schwab]

hooray beer

[pebkac]

Is it just me, or does everything in NPR seem to devolve into some kind of liberal and/or conservative conspiracy of some kind?

[chook]

Is it just me, or does everything in NPR seem to devolve into some kind of liberal and/or conservative conspiracy of some kind?

shhhh, the internet police may be trolling!

[kcroxyoursox]

Is it just me, or does everything in NPR seem to devolve into some kind of liberal and/or conservative conspiracy of some kind?

its what happens when 2/3 of a forum category involves choosing sides.

religion and politics often go hand in hand, not necessarily in the sense of church vs state, but just that certain religious groups tend to stereotypically favor one side or the other on a political scale. so if you have a religious article, you will get the conservative/liberal responses just like when you have a purely political article, as politics is also largely a matter of conservative vs liberal.

i guess you can choose sides on secular, neutral news stories, but thats really only to the extent of if it qualifies as news.

it just stems from the reality that everything outside of straight fact is an opinion, and an individual's opinions derive from their political/religious convictions

[FORSAKENR320]

its what happens when 2/3 of a forum category involves choosing sides.

religion and politics often go hand in hand, not necessarily in the sense of church vs state, but just that certain religious groups tend to stereotypically favor one side or the other on a political scale. so if you have a religious article, you will get the conservative/liberal responses just like when you have a purely political article, as politics is also largely a matter of conservative vs liberal.

i guess you can choose sides on secular, neutral news stories, but thats really only to the extent of if it qualifies as news.

it just stems from the reality that everything outside of straight fact is an opinion, and an individual's opinions derive from their political/religious convictions

2nd theory








everyone in NPR is an asshat