johnsocal

GM, Ford sales sink, Daimler jumps

GM posts 7.4 percent drop in April U.S. sales while Ford reports 11th straight monthly decline.

May 3, 2005: 2:06 PM EDT

DETROIT (Reuters) - The world's largest automakers Tuesday reported mixed sales for April, with General Motors and Ford reporting declines but DaimlerChrysler posting a 9 percent rise.

Shares of GM (up $0.51 to $27.67, Research) and Ford (up $0.23 to $9.45, Research) each rallied in afternoon trading while Daimler (down $0.12 to $39.23, Research) shares edged lower on the New York Stock Exchange.

General Motors said U.S. vehicle sales dropped 7.4 percent drop in April to 385,939 cars and trucks. The results include GM's Saab brands and some medium- and heavy-duty trucks

The world's largest automaker, which last month posted a $1.1 billion loss for the first quarter, said its sales slipped from 401,451 vehicles in April last year.

Ford said U.S. sales of its cars and trucks, including its import brands and some medium- and heavy-duty trucks, fell 1.5 percent in April, the 11th straight monthly decline, as sales of sport utility vehicles sagged.

The nation's second-largest automaker sold 281,292 vehicles last month compared with 285,675 in the year-ago period.

DaimlerChrysler, the world's No. 3 automaker, said U.S. sales rose 9 percent to 225,351 vehicles in April.

DaimlerChrysler said sales of its Mercedes brand rose 2 percent to 18,805 units while its U.S. Chrysler arm saw sales grow 9 percent to 206,546.

GM's results were adjusted to include one extra selling day in April 2005 while Ford and DaimlerChrysler's results were not.




***In my opinion that not good news for Ford considering they just released a bunch of new cars like the 500,Freestyle, Mustang, and even F150 is still a fresh design. Usually if a cars is going to be an overall sales success (like the new Stang) it needs to be popular right from the begining since there are only a few exceptions (if any) in which a car becomes more popular later in its production run. Of course usual production hangups will limit production in the first year that keeps volume artificially down but that doesn't diminish if a car is popular and in demand.

Omegalock

If it's bad news for Ford the slowing of SUVs and trucks could be potentially disasterous for GM if things keep trending like they are.

johnsocal

A more complete article about this can be found @ http://businessweek.com/ap/financial...id=apn_home_up

Chuck!

Ford moved nearly 20k Mustangs. Unreal.

The positives I saw for GM were 3.5k STSs and 6.1k CTSs - rallying in sales it's third year on the market? GM must be making a pretty good penny off 44k STSs as Sigma was probably paid for long ago.

dav305z

Once you look into the results, they are not that scary and actually are very positive. The first thing is that the problem at GM is now isolated to trucks. They are selling more cars (up 7.5%) with less fleet sales than last year. Once the new trucks get here, the peices should start falling into place.

johnsocal

When its all said and done if comes down if they are making a profit at the end of the day. Strong sales of particular models is a good sign but if they can't make a profit with all things consdiered they're S.O.L.

94LightningGal

Just to show the whole picture on Ford..............

Ford car sales rose 11% in April, while truck sales were down 2%. Fords highest volume car line is not out until September (Fusion, Milan, Zephyr), while the Chicago cars have seen good gains every month, and are now (and were last month also) selling at volumes that are actually higher than their projected yearly sales. Remember that the Chicago cars sell without any direct from the factory incentives (read no factory rebates). Also, Lincoln/Mercury sales were up 10.8%.

At least F150 sales stopped their slide (up 1.7% over April last year).

Does anyone have the complete sales picture for GM??? Or for DCX???

mr00jimbo

Ford designs nice exteriors but bland interiors. I saw the inside of a T-bird and a 500 and they both looked like Ford Tempos from the inside.

Daimlerchrysler is producing a lot of performance cars for the time being but I can't see them being all that great.

scott9050

Here is the interior of a tempo:

http://www.ebizautos.com/shared/view...wid=800&pid=22

now a 500:

http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/fivehundred/

now a T-Bird:

http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/thunderbird/


Explain to me how either of those look like a Tempo on the inside.

johnsocal

While Honda and Toyota get a premium $ dollar for their sedans because of their preceived superior reliability and the fact they have some of the best resale value in their class which help justify their higher price. If you pay more for a car but its worth more when you are ready to sell it (or when the lease is up) then its worth it but if you get a car with huge incentives but its almost worthless years later then all the money saved upfront is lost on the backend.

GM, Ford and the Chrysler part of DCX just have a problem that they make a ton of cash on trucks, SUV's and minvans but have a problem translating that profit margin to cars which typically sell for less money.

Just as alot of people dont take trucks made by Nissan, Toyota, or Honda seriously the same goes for sedans made by Ford, GM, and Chrysler. While I currently dig Chrysler's new 300 and Charger it will be interesting to see how profitable those cars are for DCX and if their popularity can last more then a few years.

The question we have to ask is if the big 2.5 can make a profit on something other then a car or truck that has a optional (an highly profitable) v8 engine?