August auto sales seen down 10th straight month
Automakers are expected to post a 10th consecutive month of U.S. sales declines on Wednesday as incentives on slow-selling trucks and SUVs and General Motors Corp’s employee pricing promotion failed to ignite demand from struggling consumers in August.
Analysts see automakers posting double-digit declines in U.S. auto sales for August — adding to the longest monthly losing streak for the industry since the domestic recession of 2001.
U.S. auto sales may have been down anywhere from 14 to 19 percent industrywide in August from a year earlier, according to analysts, but should have been up slightly from the 16-year low reported in July.
August sales are expected to reflect the continued shift toward smaller, more economical passenger cars and away from large pickup trucks and SUVs, as well as some difficulty supplying fuel efficient vehicles customers want.
U.S.-based GM, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC — which have a much higher percentage of sales linked to the larger vehicles than transplant carmakers — are expected to have felt the most impact from the continued shift.
Toyota Motor Corp, the No bad credit payday loan. 2 auto seller in the United States, is also expected to report sales declines. Analysts see Honda Motor Co Ltd’s sales ranging from a slight gain to a big decline and Nissan Motor Co Ltd posting sales growth of about 2 percent.
“Light vehicle sales in the U.S. appear to have continued at depressed levels through August, despite the very generous incentive programs that several major manufacturers have launched in recent weeks,” Lehman Brothers analyst Brian Johnson said in a note to clients.
Auto sales are a closely watched and early key indicator of consumer demand in the United States for big ticket items, with investors focused on whether the second-quarter economic growth will be sustained through the rest of 2008.