Sales reports showed on Tuesday reveal that leading a sharp decline for Detroit carmakers in June is General Motors's 24 percent slide in sales. Meanwhile, Japanese firms ramped up incentives and bagged more market share.
Analysts said that Japanese manufacturers increased consumer incentives, catching Detroit by surprise, and gained more sales all over the auto spectrum.
According to AutoData Corp., overall sales for the industry were down three percent for the year. The company also said that US manufacturers held 50.2 percent of the market to 42.7 percent for Asian brands.
David Healy, an analyst at Burnham Securities, said that GM's June sales were exceptionally poor and is attributed for special factors. He further said that GM had a very weak sales experience in June, in any way you slice it. Healy also points out that higher fuel costs also discouraged buyers of many domestic, or GM, truck models.
He continues that GM pulled the entire industry down accounting for most of the loss for the whole industry.
An industry analyst at Edmunds.com by the name of Alex Rosten said that GM and other US car makers appeared unprepared for the market attack from Toyota and Honda, which have been widening their product lineup. He added that the single most important factor in GM's terrible sales decline was a lack of incentive spending. Rosten continues that the Detroit Company was taken by surprise by how much the foreign automakers were willing to push incentives.
He said his firm's analysis depicted GM cut back of 9.7 percent from last year on incentive spending while Honda raised incentives to 81 percent and Toyota 26 percent.
The incentives may be comprised of low-rate or zero-percent financing, rebates or discounted lease payments.
Rosten claimed that they are going to see a substantial incentive increase throughout the summer, mostly from GM.
GM said its dealers delivered 326 300 units accounting most of the decline coming from rental sales. However, GM said its retail sales were also below expectations.
Mark LaNeve, vice president of GM North America, said they expected June would be a tough comparison to a year ago, given the planned reduction in daily rental sales. However, he added that they continue to believe that maintaining a disciplined approach to both incentives and daily rental car sales is the key to making their marketing strategy work in the long run.
Industry analyst Healy said that despite GM's weak month, it has made progress in turning its fortunes around. He said the very weak monthly sales figures may improve in the coming months. He added that GM has trimmed down nine billion dollars of annual overhead and has introduced new models that are quite profitable.
Healy deduced further that GM is close to break-even in North America.
General Motors wholly owns the Saab brand. It therefore manufactures for the brand's engine.
