By BILL O'BRIEN and MELISSA DOMSIC
Record-Eagle staff writers
January 06, 2009 12:00 am TRAVERSE CITY -- Area automobile dealers weren't surprised by dismal sales numbers released by several domestic and foreign automakers, but are hopeful sales will begin to rebound in 2009. Chrysler said Monday its December sales dropped 53 percent because of the recession and fewer fleet sales, while Toyota Motor Corp. reported a 37 percent slide and Honda Motor Co. said its sales tumbled 35 percent. Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales fell 32 percent in December, and General Motors Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. both posted 31 percent declines. "That's pretty typical for what we're seeing, at least on the new car end," said Jamie Marsh, co-owner of the Bill Marsh Automotive Group in Traverse City where new car lines include Chrysler and several GM brands, including Saturn. "None of those percentage numbers surprise me," Marsh said. "We saw a lot of customers sitting on the fence." Ford sold a total of 138,458 light vehicles in December, down 32.4 percent from 204,787 in the same month of 2007. Light vehicle sales exclude heavy trucks. Sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brand cars fell 26.4 percent to 43,087 from 58,580. But one local Ford dealer saw smaller sales declines than the national market. Grand Traverse Auto's Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales fell 20 percent in 2008 from 2007. The dealership sold 683 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles last year, down from 848 in 2007, said Gary Moss, Grand Traverse Auto president. "We did just a touch better than national on the year, but we definitely had a much better December than most of the country," Moss said. December 2008 sales were down locally 16 percent from December 2007, he said. "We're a fairly lease-intensive market, and Ford has stayed in the leasing business, so we've been able to pick up some market share from Chrysler and GM, who have walked away from their leasing business," Moss said. GM remained No. 1 in 2008. GM said its market share held steady at 22 percent for the year, and said its December car sales totaled 87,506, down 25 percent from last year. But the total included a 43 percent jump in Malibu sales and a 19 percent increase in Impala sales. Subaru said its U.S. sales crept higher in 2008 on strong demand for Forester and Impreza models. The Japanese company is the only major automaker so far to post an increase in yearly sales. Subaru sales for all of 2008 rose by 0.3 percent to 187,699 vehicles from 187,208 in 2007. Otto Belovich, owner of Traverse Motors and Cherry Capital auto dealerships in Traverse City, said Subaru sales at his dealership were up 15 percent in 2008, because it's a popular car for the four seasons of northern Michigan. "(Subaru's) got a great reputation as a car company," he said. "And Subaru owners tend to keep a car for a long time." Toyota said its December sales fell 141,949 vehicles from 224,399 in the same month of 2007 amid double-digit declines for almost every model in its lineup. The top Japanese automaker said volumes of its top-selling Camry fell 35 percent, while sales of its Prius hybrid plunged 45 percent. For the entire year, Toyota said its sales fell 15 percent to 2.2 million vehicles from 2.6 million. Locally, Belovich said Toyota sales at his dealership dropped 10 percent in 2008. "Gas is cheap," Belovich said of the reasons for the fall-off. "People don't buy economy cars when gas is cheap." However, Toyota held onto its spot as the No. 2 automaker by sales in the U.S. for its second consecutive year in 2008. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
—
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.