The leading auto manufacturers in the Unites States reported the smallest monthly sales drop, on a consolidated basis, for the month of June, indicating that the worst may just be over.
Recovery on the anvil
Bob Carter, group vice president of Toyota Motor Co. in the United States said, “We believe the industry is moving beyond the bottom. The weak economy's grip on the auto industry appears to be lessening."
A slowly but surely improving economic scenario coupled with government incentives of up to $4,500 to trade in new cars for old ones is likely to give further boost to the auto manufacturers in the times to come.
Data revealed by Autodata Corp. indicates that the auto market is nearing a turning point after a year of sharp declines.
The market research firm said that new vehicle sales for the month of June fell 28 percent from the comparative period last year. A total of 860,000 cars and light trucks were sold in the June of 2009 as majority of the car makers continued to post significant declines.
Ford fares the best, Chrysler the worst
On a case to case basis, Chrysler LLC , which came out of bankruptcy protection last month, fared the worst. Sales at the company declined a whopping 42 percent. Chrysler managed to sell 68,297 cars and trucks last month and that too riding on the back of an incentive more than $4,800 per car.
Meanwhile, GM fared comparatively better that Chrysler as its sales fell by a third to 74,785 vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp was better than GM, albeit marginally. The Japanese behemoth reported a 32 percent decline in sales in the U.S market. The Tokyo based automaker sold 131,654 units in June.
The pick of the lot, however was Ford Motor Company. Ford's year-over-year sales drop was the smallest of the automakers. The company, the only one of the Detroit’s Big Three that kept its head above the water without the bailout loans, reported a decline of a mere 11 percent in sales.
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