Big three posts double digit dips

[andy82471]

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Stor...hoo&siteid=yhoo

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday all handed in double-digit declines in July U.S. auto sales from a year ago, when aggressive employee pricing discounts whipped up demand, making the year-on-year comparisons especially brutal.

But Toyota Motor (TM : toyota motor corp sp adr rep2com

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TM103.23, -1.99, -1.9%) and Honda (HMC : Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

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HMC32.72, -0.23, -0.7%) , which avoided much of the heavy incentive spending of their U.S. counterparts last summer, notched improved sales.

GM (GM : General Motors Corporation

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GM31.39, -0.84, -2.6%) , the world's biggest carmaker, posted a 22.5% decline in light vehicle sales to 406,298 cars and trucks from 524,218 during the selling spree a year ago.

Adjusted for an extra selling day this year, sales fell 19.4%, mostly in line with Wall Street targets. On the car side, sales dropped 4.2% to 162,203 vehicles on an unadjusted basis, while GM saw sales of its light trucks fall 31.2% to 244,095.

There were 25 selling days in July 2006 compared with 26 in the year ago period.

DaimlerChrysler (DCX : daimlerchrysler ag ord

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DCX50.80, -0.85, -1.6%) was the first to hand in its results, posting a 34% plunge from a year ago. The Chrysler side of the business, amid a new product lull ahead of several launches later this year, reported a 37% decline to 150,349 vehicles.

The luxury Mercedes-Benz division, boosted by rising demand for its light trucks, turned in a 4% rise to 21,591 vehicles.

Ford Motor Co. (F : Ford Motor Company

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F6.58, -0.09, -1.3%) followed with a similar pullback to 241,339 cars and trucks, down from 366,548 a year ago. The car side turned in a decline of 7% to 89,395 while trucks plunged 43.8% to 151,944.

The flagship F-Series pickup line took a hard hit, down 45.6% to 68,982 after posting 126,905 deliveries a year ago during what Ford claimed to be the best month of sales for any vehicle in the modern era.

In the Premier Auto Group, Land Rover, Volvo and Jaguar all posted double-digit declines as well. Retail sales improved 7% when compared with last month, the company said

The declines at DaimlerChrysler and Ford were worse than Wall Street had expected and set the stage for an industry-wide pullback after last summer's buying binge.

Analysts polled by Thomson First Call are looking for a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR) of 17.3 million, down from 20.7 million in July of last year but an improvement from 16.3 million in June, according to industry research firm Autodata.

Toyota, Honda buck trend; Nissan sales fall

Toyota Motor said its sales rose 11.7% in July to 241,826 cars and trucks from 216,417 a year earlier. Sales in the luxury Lexus division rose to 26,959 vehicles from 26,562 a year ago. Total car sales gained 19.8% while light truck sales added 1.3%.

"Market conditions are playing to traditional Toyota strengths of fuel efficiency, a strong passenger car offerings as well as our comprehensive hybrid lineup," said Jim Lentz, the head of Toyota in the U.S. "We fared reasonably well in the tough truck market, where fuel costs and heavy incentives are ongoing challenges."

Separately, Honda reported it sold 151,804 cars and trucks in the U.S. in July, a 6% increase from a year ago on an unadjusted basis. The number includes sales of Honda's Acura luxury car division. Honda sold 5.4% more cars and 6.8% trucks from last year.

Nissan (NSANY : nissan motors sponsored adr

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NSANY21.27, -0.28, -1.3%) reported a 19.5% decline in July U.S. sales to 86,408 cars and trucks, down from 107,300 a year earlier, when there was one extra selling day. On an unadjusted basis, the car side fell 14.5% and the truck side fell 24.9%.

The top-selling Altima sedan saw its sales fall almost 29% while Maxima sales rose 6.6% from a year earlier.

Sales at its luxury Infiniti division slipped 21.3% to 10,548 units.

Ramping up incentives

Incentive spending ramped up from a month ago, with the industry paying out about $4.5 million in promotions compared with $3.9 billion in June, according to car-buying research site Edmunds.com. The domestic automakers made up 75% of the total, the Japanese 15%.

General Motors (GM : General Motors Corporation

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GM31.39, -0.84, -2.6%) , with its zero-percent financing deal, raised its spending by $1,461 per vehicle to $4,578, straying from its long-term plan to move away from this kind of spending and focus on value pricing.

Elsewhere, Ford spending increased $330 to $3,919 while Chrysler backed off the spending, down $1,387 to $2,658 per vehicle.

The Japanese spent a record amount, up $101 to $1,361 per vehicle sold, Edmunds.com said, explaining that Toyota (TM : toyota motor corp sp adr rep2com

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TM103.23, -1.99, -1.9%) and its peers offered more deals on larger trucks and SUVs to help counter the effect of rising fuel costs.

Shawn Langlois is a reporter for MarketWatch, and the editor of its community message boards

Edited August 1, 2006 by andy82471

[bowtie_dude]

Yeah, formatting is FUBAR'd.

[Drew Dowdell]

compaired to "employee pricing summer '05" yeah.... but they're actually up from July '04 right?

and more profitable to boot.

[andy82471]

compaired to "employee pricing summer '05" yeah.... but they're actually up from July '04 right?

and more profitable to boot.

174455[/snapback]

Most likely. Anybody knows the July 04 sales number ??

[Newbiewar]

compaired to "employee pricing summer '05" yeah.... but they're actually up from July '04 right?

and more profitable to boot.

174455[/snapback]

in 2004 they sold 450k units

in 2006 they sold 410k units...

in 2004 there was 27 selling days

in 2006 there was 25 selling days...

so... with that in mind

GM is down about 1.2% from july 2004... but they are down in ytd to both years... by a lot

without that in mind... GM is almost down 9% from july 2004...