Ford, GM, Toyota Report April US Sales Drops as Request Slows, Fox Business
Ford, GM, Toyota Report April US Sales Drops as Request Slows
Ford, General Motors and Toyota all reported U.S. sales declines in April, strong signs that request for cars, trucks and SUVs is kicking off to slow after seven straight years of growth.
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Ford’s sales fell 7.Two percent, dragged down by car sales that tumbled over twenty one percent. At General Motors, sales were down Five.8 percent as strong spectacles for some SUVs and the Cruze compact car couldn’t offset falling pickup truck request.
Toyota reported a two percent sales decline for the month as healthy sales of the RAV4 puny SUV were overcome by falling request for cars such as the Camry and Corolla.
Industry analysts expect April sales to be down anywhere from two percent to four percent, but still run at a healthy annual rate of around 17.1 million vehicles. Kelley Blue Book says it looks like two thousand seventeen U.S. sales will fall brief of last year’s record 17.Five million for the very first annual sales drop since 2009.
While sales still are healthy, automakers are suggesting deals to rival for a lump of the shrinking pie. But there are signs that the industry is relying too strenuously on incentives.
The average price paid per vehicle is kicking off to wane after years of stable increases, even for popular SUVs. Previously SUV prices kept growing while car prices fell due to sagging request.
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The average price paid for an SUV in April was $33,165, according to the consulting stiff J.D. Power and Associates. That was down two percent from last April. One reason for the decline was that more customers were buying smaller, less expensive SUVs this year. But another was a whopping eighteen percent increase in incentives, which hit $Three,338 per vehicle.
Jeff Schuster, a senior vice president at the forecasting stiff LMC Automotive, said automakers are fiercely challenging so they don’t lose sales in the hot SUV market. But that can lead to inflated request, overproduction and ever-higher incentives.
“This will have to balance with natural request at some point relatively soon or the industry will be heading into potential troubled waters and unhealthy habits,” he said.
Before the two thousand eight financial crisis, automakers were relying on incentives to boost sales and preserve market share, to the point that they were losing money on some models.
Last month, incentive spending was up eleven percent on cars, to $Three,903 per vehicle. The average price paid for a car was $25,516, which was about the same as last year.
Pickup trucks were the only segment in which automakers suggested fewer deals. Incentive spending was down six percent to $Three,276 per vehicle. Customers were willing to pay $31,438 for a pickup in April, which was one percent more than a year ago.
By TOM KRISHER and DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Auto Writers
