Big Three automakers fall behind import brands for the second time on record in November.
Import auto brands overtook the traditional Big Three automakers in U.S. sales in November, only the second time on record that the domestic brands fell behind their overseas rivals.
While Ford Motor Co. posted a narrow gain in sales compared to a year ago, General Motors saw its sales fall 11 percent due primarily to a drop in fleet sales to business customers such as rental car companies. Privately-held Chrysler LLC also saw a modest decline in sales in the month.
The only previous month in which domestic brands lost out to imports was July of this year.
That month domestic brands had only 48.1 percent of U.S. sales.
The final figures for November were not yet available, but the domestic brands of GM, Ford and Chrysler sold only 588,761 cars and light trucks between them, while the import brands had a preliminary sales total of 591,028 with a handful of small niche import brands yet to be heard from.
In the global auto industry, the distinction between domestics and imports is somewhat artificial. GM (Charts, Fortune 500) has one import brand, Saab, while Ford (Charts, Fortune 500) had three -- Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar, although it is looking to sell the latter two. It also has a controlling stake in Mazda. In addition, overseas automakers such as Toyota Motor (Charts) and Honda Motor (Charts) build a significant portion of the cars they sell here at U.S. assembly plants and other facilities they now operate.
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1 comment:
Nice and interesting figures, many be the "go green" phenomenon has finally begun to show up in Americans but looking at this on a business perspective the big three are surely going to devise a more rigorous marketing strategy.
I would also recommend the site http://www.youngentrepreneursociety.com/
Regards
Max
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