October's U.S. Auto Sales: Most Disappoint, But Mitsubishi And Hyundai Buck The Trend

It seems there is no respite for the automakers, as most continued to report a drop in sales for the month of October. Some of the companies have suffered a drop in recent months as well. One of the reasons is the tough comparisons.

A week ago, Edmunds.com predicted a new auto sales drop of 6.8 percent on a year-over-year basis and 5.2 percent fall on a month-over-month basis. The firm expects seasonally-adjusted annual auto sales of about 17.8 million units.

Edmunds Views October

Significantly, General Motors Company GM is predicted to enjoy a market share of 18.2 percent by Edmunds, while the company reported share gain of 1.6 percentage points to 18.1 percent in October. Ford Motor Company F, which postponed its release of October sales number, is expected to enjoy a market share of 14 percent. Toyota Motor Corp (ADR) TM is also predicted to enjoy a market share of 14 percent, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV FCAU is expected to have enjoyed a market share of 13.1 percent.

Although average transaction prices witnessed 2.5 percent year-over-year growth, TrueCar Inc TRUE estimated revenue loss of about $2 billion or 4.2 percent from the year-ago October period. The latest period’s revenue would have reached $46 billion.

Chief industry analyst, Eric Lyman, commented, "With the 2016 model year sell down complete, average transaction prices have increased and incentives are on the decline; both are key metrics indicating continued market strength. As some automakers begin to manage vehicle production, we expect new vehicle incentives to continue to pull back from recent elevated levels of spending."

Majors' Figures

The major automakers sales for October are given below:

• Fiat Chrysler reported a 10 percent drop in total sales.
• Ford postponed its October sales release citing a fire at its World Headquarters. The company indicated that it would announce the sales number during the current week.
• General Motors reported a fall of 1.7 percent in total unit sales.
• Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) HMC reported 4.2 percent fall in total unit sales.
• Hyundai Motor America reported 4.17 percent increase in total unit sales.
• MITSUBISHI MOTOR C NPV MMTOF bucked the trend to report 2.8 percent growth in total unit sales.
• Nissan Motor Co Ltd (ADR) NSANY reported a 2.2 percent decrease in total unit sales.
• Toyota Motor disclosed 8.7 percent decrease in total unit sales.
• Volkswagen AG (ADR) VLKAY suffered 18.5 percent drop in total unit sales.

Post-Sales Data Performance

At last check ...

• Fiat was down 1.84 at $7.18.
• Ford was down 1.41 percent at $11.57.
• GM was down 0.38 percent at $31.48.
• Honda was down 2.75 percent at $29.01.
• Mitsubishi was down 0.73 percent at $5.46.
• Nissan was down 1.48 percent at $20.01.
• ADRs of Toyota were down 0.88 percent at $114.64.
• ADRs of Volkswagen were down 1.43 percent at $29.32.