For Toyota, September was its third worst sales decline since at least 1980.
“The best thing about September is that it’s over,” said Don Esmond, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales USA.
On a daily selling rate basis, Toyota’s sales dropped 29.5% in September. The only months worse than that were in July 1987 and January 1987 when Toyota’s sales dropped 32% and 31% respectively, said Bob Carter, group vice president and general manager of Toyota’s U.S. sales arm.
Toyota said sales tanked early in September as the housing market crisis swept through other sectors of the economy and weather-related issues disrupted sales in the gulf states. Later in the month, Carter said the sales decline was directly related to the financial meltdown on Wall Street, which shook consumer confidence.
“The last 10 days of the month are typically the best, and we saw the traffic steadily declining to extremely low levels during the last days,” Carter said.
To reverse those trends, Toyota announced Friday a 0% interest rate on 11 Toyota models — including Camry and Corolla.
Sales to recover slowly
President George W. Bush may have signed into law a $700-billion bailout package for Wall Street on Friday, but automotive analysts say it’s unlikely that will cause U.S. automotive sales to rebound in October.
“I think people are still trying to digest what this means for them,” said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com.
In September, automotive sales dropped 26.6% to their lowest level since February 1993. October won’t be that bad, Toprak said, but is likely to be down as much as 15% from last October.
“October is usually one of the worst months of the year in terms of total volume,” Toprak said. “The fact that the bill passed does not mean money is being spent yet.”
Customers eager for electrics
Most of the electric cars being shown, including at the Paris auto show, won’t be available for a couple of years.
When they hit showroom floors, automakers do not expect a problem in finding customers.
“The investments needed for electric cars are colossal,” Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said during the auto show.
“The question is not whether demand will be sufficient. It is whether supply will be able to follow the demand that is already out there,” he said.
Renault showed the Z.E. Concept compact car at the show.
Source : Freep.com
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