But sales of the Rogue were up 19 percent, setting an August record and Nissan Maxima sales were up 43 percent. This decline reveals the fact that the United States auto industry’s growth is now slowing down. The analysts expected a SAAR in the low 17 million range.
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GM, Ford, Toyota, Nissan and Honda notched sales declines last month. Following the release of monthly sales data, shares of these big three plummeted more than 1%. Each of the biggest US and Japanese auto makers posted declines except Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, due in part to a continued decline in demand for passenger cars.
At General Motors, sales in August were down about 5 percent year over year to 256,429 vehicles.
Nissan Motor Co. said its sales fell 6.5 percent to 124,638. The company believes that 2016 is not going to repeat record high for the USA auto sales set a year ago. This was just in line with industry’s retail performance for August.
TrueCar.com, which tracks incentives throughout the industry, estimated that the average of rebates and other incentives across the industry rose 7.7 percent in August from a year earlier to $3,331 from $3,094. Kurt McNeil, head of United States sales for GM, noted that his company was outperforming competitors in this. GM Chief Economist Mustafa Mohatarem said in a statement Thursday that solid economic underpinnings point to a “sustainable high level of customer demand”. Ford’s overall sales fell 8 percent to 214,482.
On the other side, its Lincoln sales jumped 7% in the United States during the month, as compared to 9,243 vehicles sold during the same month’s past year.
Vice president of Ford and U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service, Mark LaNeve stated that strong sales of high-end Lincoln vehicles and Ford SUVs also helped us continue outpacing the industry in average transaction pricing, which surged $1,200 versus a year ago. “Vans continue to be a bright spot for Ford – a consistent growth story for us this year”.
In the press release, Blue Oval mentioned that its F-Series sales of 66,946 trucks showed a 6% decline.
Retail sales have fallen in four of the past six months, after rising for 66 straight months, according to research firm J.D. Power.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (NYSE:FCAU) was the only automaker among Detroit auto makers that reported a rise in its overall vehicle sales in the reported month.
Fiat Chrysler’s sales rose 3 percent to 196,756.
The Jeep brand continued to turn in robust sales at Fiat-Chrysler. Fleet sales to rental lots are generally seen as a far less profitable business than retail deliveries.
Fiat Chrysler’s 3.1 percent gain was short of the 5 percent average estimate.
In late July, Ford was the first major automaker to confirm the lofty sales gains achieved since 2010 were at an end, even though they are still about 65 percent higher than the lowest sales year in 2009.
Toyota reported August sales of 213,125 units, a decrease of 5 percent from August 2015. Sales of its Ram pickup were little changed.
Dana Incorporated (NYSE:DAN) [Trend Analysis] tries to capture market sentiments, shares eased up 0.42% to $14.48.
Honda, which makes several of its top models in central OH, saw sales drop 3.8 percent.
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Hyundai’s sales were flat at 72,015 vehicles.
