Black Friday Deals Drive November U.S. Auto Sales

Attractive Black Friday deals, rising wages and household wealth, improving job security and falling gas prices boosted U.S. light-vehicle sales 5% year over year to 1.3 million units in Nov 2014. Sales on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (“SAAR”) basis amounted to 17.2 million units against 16.3 million in Nov 2013 and 16.5 million in Oct 2014. Strong light truck sales accounted for most of the improvement even as car sales inched down.

Most major automakers impressed with their sales results. Among the six major American and Japanese automakers, Chrysler recorded the maximum year-over-year improvement and was the only one to record double-digit sales growth. Meanwhile, General Motors Co. (GM) led in absolute figures.Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (HMC) also saw sales growth, while Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (NSANY) and Ford Motor Co. (F) suffered slight declines.

Now, let us look at the U.S. sales figures reported by the individual automakers.

U.S. Automakers

General Motors recorded 225,818 vehicle sales in November, improving 6% year over year. This is the company’s best November sales in seven years. Retail sales improved 5%, commercial sales went up 1% and fleet sales improved 11%.

Ford reported a 2% decline in U.S. sales from the year-ago period to 187,000 vehicles in Nov 2014. The decline was due to inventory management actions by the company. The New Ford Mustang was highly popular while Escape had the highest November sales ever. Sales volume of the Lincoln brand vehicles surged 21% year over year, thanks to the popularity of the new MKC and Navigator.

Chrysler Group – controlled by Fiat S.p.A (FCAU) – recorded a 20% year-over-year rise in sales to 170,839 vehicles. With this, Chrysler’s monthly sales have increased year over year for 56 consecutive months. This impressive feat also marks the best November sales for the group since 2001.

Japanese Automakers

Toyota’s sales increased 3% year over year to 183,346 units in Nov 2014. Sales in the Toyota division improved 2.3% to 155,874 units. Lexus’ sales rose 7.3% to 27,472 units, which is a record high for the month of November.

Honda recorded a 4.6% year-over-year increase in sales to 121,814 vehicles in the month, which is a record high for any November. Sales in the Honda Division increased 4.9% to 106,957 units, the highest November sales in its history. Further, sales of the Acura Division jumped 2% to 14,857 vehicles.

Nissan Motor posted a 3.1% year-over-year decrease in sales to 103,188 vehicles in November. Sales in the Nissan division also fell 1.7% to 91,790 units. Further, sales of the Infiniti Division went down 13.3% to 11,398 units.

Outlook

Automakers continue to offer large incentives to customers, while banks are offering more car loans with lower interest rates and longer repayment periods. Further, ongoing recovery in the U.S. economy is improving employment rate, household income and consumer confidence. Additionally, the high average age of cars on the U.S. roads is resulting in high replacement demand for cars as well as car parts. All these factors, along with falling fuel prices are working in favor of auto sales in the U.S.

Thus, auto sales are expected to continue improving. However, some analysts believe that the strong November sales might have a negative effect on December sales. Nevertheless, the outlook for long-term sales continues to remain positive due to improving macroeconomic factors, residual pent-up demand, attractive deals and vehicle launches.

Ford expects industry volumes for the year to be around 16.8 million units. As the automobile industry is a major contributor to U.S. economic growth, improving auto sales will also help in the recovery of the overall U.S. economy.

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