2008 JANUARY AUTO SALES

2008 JANUARY AUTO SALES

GM sales up 2.6% in difficult month

Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan and others post declines

Richard Truett
Automotive News
February 1, 2008 - 1:14 pm ET
UPDATED: 2/1/08 5:05 p.m. EST

DETROIT -- With its new vehicles gaining traction, General Motors was one of
the few automakers reporting a retail sales increase in what was a very
tough January for U.S. auto sales.

Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, Nissan, Honda, Volkswagen and several others all
lost sales during the month.

Total sales fell 2.9 percent to 1.06 million vehicles. The seasonally
adjusted annualized rate was 15.8 million vehicles.

But GM, on the strength of its Chevrolet Malibu, Cadillac CTS and
hot-selling mid-size crossovers, delivered 250,926 vehicles in January, up
2.6 percent over January 2007.

Of that total, 186,187 vehicles were sold at retail, while 64,739 were fleet
sales. The total includes 148,191 trucks.

The star of GM's show was the new Chevrolet Malibu, which has one of the
industry's fastest turn rates, staying on dealer lots about 16 days. GM says
Malibu sales rose 58 percent over a year ago. The new Malibu won the North
American Car of the Year award last month at the Detroit auto show.

Some of the Malibu's sales could be coming at the expense of the older,
slightly larger Impala, which saw its sales drop from 25,275, a year ago to
17,544 in January. In any case, Malibu racked up January sales of 14,541, up
57.9 percent from the 9,209 sold a year ago.

Other winners for GM include the Cadillac CTS with sales of 5,534, up 95
percent from 2,843 sold a year ago, and the Chevrolet Aveo, up 40 percent.
Aveo sales in January were 5,314. The Buick Enclave/GMC Acadia/Saturn
Outlook, were up 134 percent over last year. Sales of each totaled 3,390,
7,318, and 1,951 respectively.

GM's smaller crossover SUVs, the Pontiac Torrent, Saturn Vue and Chevrolet
Equinox registered a 38 percent gain.

The increased sales helped shore up GM's market share. Mike DiGiovanni, GM's
executive director of global market and industry analysis, estimated the
company gained 2 percentage points of share in January.

The January sales boom left GM with 165,000 units in dealer inventory, the
lowest it has been in 25 years.

"GM is back in the car business," said Mark LeNeve, GM's vice president of
North American sales and marketing.

Ford losing streak continues

Ford's long losing streak continued into 2008, with the company posting a
3.9 percent sales drop over a year ago. Ford has registered just one
year-over-year monthly sales gain since October 2006, in November 2007.

Ford did have some good news. Sales of the refreshed Focus sedan rose 44
percent over last January. Ford's Edge sold 10,888 units in January, up from
5,586 a year ago. With sales of 3,026, the MKX, the Edge's upscale cousin,
nearly doubled sales over January 2007.

Ford's Escape also posted a strong month, with a sales increase of 33.1
percent over last year.

But Ford's cash cow, the aging F-series pickup, saw another month of sales
declines with an 8.4 percent drop. Ford sold 41,125 F-series trucks in
January, down from 44,919 a year ago.

Ford sold 159,276 vehicles in January, down from 165,803 during the same
month last year.

Toyota has soft month

Toyota Motor Corp. showed mortality during the month.

Its January sales were off 2.3 percent compared with January 2007. The
Tundra tumbled. The big truck sold 12,073 units in January, down 37.2
percent from December. That's the best comparison because the new Tundra was
just being launched a year ago. Sales of the gasoline-electric Prius hybrid
surged 37 percent to 11,379 in January, up from 8,299 sold a year ago.

"On the retail front, consumers are sitting in the catbird's seat, with
falling interest rates and a competitive market giving rise to showroom
values," Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., said in a
statement. "On the product front, the migration toward passenger cars
dovetails nicely with February's launch of the all-new Corolla and Matrix."

Part of Toyota's problem for the month was a shortage of inventory, said Bob
Carter, group vice president and Toyota Division general manager. He said
Toyota experienced its "best January in history" in the region between Texas
and Chicago, and the area from Boston to Washington, D.C.

But he said dealers in those regions were held back by shortages of certain
models of Camrys and RAV4s.

He acknowledged there were soft spots in the brand's lineup in January. Two
SUVs, the FJ Cruiser and 4Runner, fell by 37 percent and 25 percent,
respectively. Corolla dipped 18 percent as the company sold off old
inventory in preparation for this month's launch of a new generation.

Dodge gains, but Chrysler down

Chrysler started 2008 with mixed news. Led by new Dodge Avenger, sales of
Dodge cars jumped 42 percent over a year ago. Charger, Viper and Caliber
also gained in January. But it wasn't enough to drag Chrysler into positive
territory because of the losses posted by the Chrysler and Jeep brands.

Chrysler sales were off 17 percent; Jeep was down 6 percent. Perhaps the
most worrisome sales trend for Chrysler was the cold reception the company's
new minivans received. The Dodge Caravan posted January sales 56 percent
lower than a year ago. The Chrysler Town & Country saw a 20 percent drop.

Even the Jeep Wrangler, one of the company's top performers, got hurt in
January. The rugged off-roader sold 6,137 units last month, down from 8,954
a year ago.

Chrysler officials acknowledged this is the first time monthly Wrangler
sales have declined since the new model was introduced in fall 2006.

Steven Landry, Chrysler's executive vice president of North American sales
said: "The strength of orders still strong. We want to be sure we continue
the momentum with Wrangler. Our challenge is to make sure both the 2-door
and 4-door stay as strong as they have been."

Landry said Chrysler's Toledo Supplier Park is still "maxed out" keeping up
with Wrangler orders.

Acura drop drags Honda results

Meanwhile, combined sales of Honda and Acura brand vehicles dipped slightly
in January, down 2.3 percent over a year ago, to 98,511. Honda division
reported a half percent drop in sales.

On the strength of the redesigned Civic and Accord and the Fit subcompact,
Honda cars gained 7.1 percent. But its trucks lost 6.2 percent. The Acura
division dinged Honda in January, with a sales decline of 14.2 percent.

In other reports issued so far today:

-- Nissan North America saw its January sales skid 7.3 percent. Sales of
Nissan branded vehicles were down 7.8 percent, while the Infiniti luxury
division registered a 3.6 percent dip over last January. The totals: Nissan
sales were 67,971, down from 73,680.

Several new vehicles, such as the Rogue SUV and Versa compact, are off to a
quick start, adding more than 11,000 units to Nissan's total. But that
wasn't enough to offset lower sales for the Titan truck, Armada, Quest and
Murano.

-- Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia didn't fare much better than their
Japanese counterparts. Hyundai saw its U.S. sales dip from 27,721 a year ago
to 21,452 last month, a drop of 22.6 percent. Kia did better but still lost
ground. Its sales of 21,355 in January were off 5.2 percent compared with
sales of 22,524 a year ago.

" We are disappointed with our sales results and recognize this is a
challenging sales environment.," said Hyundai Motor America's vice president
of national sales, Dave Zuchowski.

-- Mercedes-Benz, with an increase of 19 percent, posted its highest ever
January sales. Some winners for the German automaker included the C-class,
which gained 18 percent with sales of 4,647 compared with 3,928 sold a year
ago.

-- Volkswagen saw its January sales skid 13.2 percent in January. VW is
without its diesel-powered Jetta, a popular vehicle in a time of high fuel
prices. Sales of the Touareg SUV dropped by almost 50 percent.

-- Sales at Porsche were off 13 percent.

-- Suzuki opened the 2008 sales season with a 12.9 percent drop compared
with January 2007.

-- Subaru sales fell 6.5 percent, but the recently freshened Impreza chalked
up a small gain in sales over last January.