September Sales: Slow, Steady Growth Led By Trucks, Crossovers

General Motors, Chrysler LLC and Nissan each increased sales by at least one-fifth when compared with September 2010, though the industry looks good mostly when compared with last year. Thanks to their financial problems, GM and Chrysler took bigger hits than the rest of the industry the past few years.
On Monday, Ford and Toyota estimated a low-13 million seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), while GM estimated a number in the high 12s.

The automakers face slow growth rather than a double-dip recession, says GM sales veep Don Johnson. The auto industry remains a bright spot in consumer demand because a lot of buyers are replacing aging cars. Not to mention (as no one did) cars and trucks coming off three-year leases from the beginning of the recession with stickers higher than their owners could afford.
Pickup trucks had a good month at the Detroit Three. GM trucks were up 34.3 percent, with the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra selling 57,602 combined. With heavy advertising and incentives, GM expects to have its truck inventory back down to a 90-day supply, or 200,000 units, by the end of the year.
Ford sold 54,410 F-Series, and Chrysler sold 24,522 Ram pickups, helping it edge past Toyota Motor Sales, which remained beset with supply problems related to the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Ford’s utilities were up 35 percent overall in September ’11, versus September ’10, led by the aged Escape and the new Explorer. As for pickups, strong sales to small businesses and contractors have helped, though certainly there can’t be too much demand resulting from home construction and repair.
The 20k+ Ford Escape sales are puzzling. The much newer Chevy Equinox also continues to sell well, but it needs to be combined with GMC Terrain sales to better the Ford.
While GM’s Chevy Cruze again led compact sales last month, its soon-to-be-replaced Malibu took a dive. Meanwhile, the new Ford Focus missed the top five in compact sales, while its soon-to-be-replaced Fusion was the third-bestselling midsize sedan. Ford blames short supply of the ’12 Focus, which launched in March. Last month, Ford said a large portion of its 14,093 Focus sales in August were of the new model. Could it be that many buyers are willing to spend a couple of dollars more per month to buy a Fusion, especially as gasoline prices have come down below $3.50 per gallon in September?