As Expected, January 2009 Sales Were Horrid

Hyundai, Subaru and Kia Post Monthly Gains

The U.S. auto industry continues to be battered as the recession deepens and the public’s mood to make big ticket purchases is tempered by job loss fears and realities. The news was entirely expected, but the carnage is still quite hard to take in, especially as sales approach 1982 levels.

With preliminary figures in, sales for January 2009 were around 650,000 units, which equals an annual selling rate of just 7.8 million vehicles. Seeing that just a few years ago the industry was selling over 17 million passenger vehicles each year, the drop is downright cataclysmic.

We Have Three Winners

But, there were three bright spots found in the past month, two of which involved Korean manufacturers Hyundai and Kia, who posted increases of 14.3 and 3.5 percent respectively. Deep incentives as well as Hyundai rolling out its Hyundai Assurance buy back plan likely helped the larger of the two Korean automakers. A third automaker, Subaru, saw sales increase by 8%, as the company enjoyed a 115% increase in sales for the Forester, the 2009 Motor Trend Sport/Utility of the Year.

America’s Big Three are looking more and more like the Little Three with each passing month. Chrysler sales dropped 55%, GM was down 49% and Ford fell 40%. Chrysler’s drop also meant that Honda pushed ahead of Chrysler for the fourth position in total U.S. sales.

Big Losses Continue For Japan’s Big Three

Japan’s Big Three each got hit, but not as hard as America’s carmarkers. Honda fell 28%, Nissan was down by just under 30% while Toyota lost 31.7% compared to January 2008.

Daimler’s drop of 35.5% was tempered by Smart sales which were up by 177% over January 2008, the first month that the Smart ForTwo was on sale in the U.S. Otherwise, Mercedes sales slipped by 42.2%. Last January Mercedes finished the month ahead of BMW by 3800 units but this past month BMW led by 1800 units. The two German automakers are locked in a fight for European luxury car supremacy with Audi a distant third.

No other full line automobile manufacturer (besides the three winners) finished with less than a 15% drop for the month, with Suzuki falling to GM level lows by 49%. Jaguar sales were up for the month and Land Rover was down, dragging the joint entity down overall.

For the month, U.S. car sales dropped by 37.1% versus January 2008, marking the fourth consecutive month where sales dropped by at least 30%.

Current sales levels are matching what was last seen in August 1982 when the U.S. was also experiencing a deep recession. But at that time there were 72 million fewer people living in this country, underscoring how comparatively bad this recession is, particularly for the U.S. auto industry.

Source: Autodata Corp.