February is almost never one of the strongest months for new vehicle sales in the US.
Coupled with the gradual softening of the market, it was not surprising to see a 2.3% year on year drop with about 30,000 fewer deliveries.
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Total volume was just slightly ahead of 1.3m cars and light trucks. The seasonally adjusted annualised rate was 17.08m compared to 17.45m in February 2017. It was also down from January’s 17.16m.
The Detroit automakers were the big losers, giving up nearly 1.4 percentage points of market share as total deliveries fell 5.4%. Most of that was picked up by the Japanese automakers with Toyota coming through with a gain and Mazda delivering its best February results in 24 years. Subaru set another monthly record and Mitsubishi deliveries were up 18.8% thanks to a triple digit jump in sales of the Outlander Sport.
The European car companies picked up what was left of the Detroit share and added the half percentage point dropped by the Koreans. A Mini propelled increase in BMW turnover, a record month for Mercedes-Benz and a 35.1% bump in Volvo deliveries combined with a 9.3% increase in Volkswagen Group sales to produce a 6.9% gain. Jaguar Land Rover was the only automaker to come up short.
Hyundai and Kia are still hurting. Combined sales for the brands were down 9.3% for the month and already are off 8% just two months into the new year.
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By GlobalDataFCA finished the month down 1.4%, its best performance in a while. It also had the smallest deficit of the Detroit automakers. The key may well have been fleet sales which made up 26% of its total turnover in February. FCA had been cutting back on its daily rental fleet business and has gone from most dependent to least dependent. Perhaps US sales boss Reid Bigland is feeling some pressure to post some positive numbers.
Ford got hit from almost all sides last month as a 6.1% slump in its core brand’s deliveries was compounded by Lincoln sales cratering, down 23.4%, with only the big (recently redesigned) Navigator showing signs of life. Only one of its five product lines (Ford car, utilities and trucks and Lincoln cars and utilities) came up a winner. Thanks to the F-series, which had its best February in 18 years, the truck line came up with a 1.4% gain and accounted for 36.6% of the brand’s total volume for the month.
The F-Series was also the only American full-size pickup to beat its 2017 numbers. The Chevrolet Colorado was the only other American pickup to finish in the black in this quintessentially American segment. Sales of US brand trucks fell 8.9%
Ironically, all four of the transplant pickups from Nissan and Toyota delivered double digit gains, led by the Nissan Frontier’s 68.8% jump and the Titan’s 25.9% improvement. They didn’t have the volume to pull the segment into the black, it finished down 4.2%, but they did show that the Japanese automakers can build pickups in America and Americans will buy them.
General Motors fell victim to downturns in sales of its real bread and butter brands with Chevrolet and GMC off 8.8% and 8% respectively. Buick and Cadillac reported improvements but they didn’t have the volume to cover the deficit.
The Detroit cohort also missed the mark in deliveries of crossovers and SUVs. FCA and GM beat their year ago numbers but the Ford utilities crashed, down 12.3% with big drops in sales of the Escape, Expedition and Flex and an 18.2% decline in sales of the Lincoln utes. The only Ford utility to finish ahead of its 2017 mark was the special service Police Interceptor.
Jeep finally managed to bring in a solid month, taking the top spot in the segment for total volume. Its resurgence was led by the almost new Compass, which had a nearly six fold year over year gain last month. It was the best selling Jeep model and outsold every GM model except the Equinox.
Most automakers are probably hoping for some relief this month. March is typically one of the best months in the sales year. Consumer confidence is high and tax refunds are starting to arrive. But the many off lease vehicles coming back to dealers continue to be a tempting alternative to new vehicles while average transaction prices are still growing.
The interesting times continue.
* indicates a sales record.
**Volkswagen Group figures include Audi, Bentley, Porsche and Volkswagen brands
Other includes estimated sales for Aston-Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, McLaren, Rolls-Royce and Tesla
