Automakers incentives averaged just over $2,500 per vehicle in November, up from November 2012, but down 2% from October 2013.
In the ongoing commercialization of everything the sun shines on, U.S. auto sales in November were boosted by black Friday promotions, some new incentives, as well as the ongoing successful roll-out of the Chevrolet Silverado (34,000) and GMC Sierra (14,000) full-size pickup trucks among other models. The Ford F-Series, the perennial best-selling vehicle in the country, had a strong month at more than 65,000, which totals to a healthy, but not record breaking 690,000 year-to-date. Even Chrysler came to the party in a new outfit as it finally shipped the Jeep Cherokee (10,000) that has been in production at the Toledo assembly complex since last June but was held back because of unexplained quality issues. The Ram pickup truck also was strong at almost 30,000 units, a sales number that has caught the attention of normally insular GM and Ford execs who normally dismiss Chrysler Group as a serious contender.
The upshot was a SAAR, or seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate, of more than 16 million cars and light trucks. This is back to the healthy levels last seen before the Bush Great Recession years took hold starting in 2008. The human and economic tragedies that resulted from reckless Republican deregulation, allowing corrupt ratings agencies, banks and Wall Street firms to speculate until the bubble burst is still ongoing,the auto business is once again creating wealth even if it is disproportionately distributed.
While the Detroit Three are enjoying the resurgence in sales of pickup trucks – the last segment that they clearly dominate, offshore nameplates once again proved that their tenacious hold on large chunks of the auto market is not slipping. On the contrary, offshore brands gained share at 56.4% of the U.S. market in November, up from 54% last month and 54.9% in September.
Overall sales figures improved markedly as the total U.S. sales results grew by 9%, with offshore brands selling 702,810 vehicles, up from 652,008 in October and 625,593 in September. Nissan’s sales were up 10.8% at 106,000. Subaru saw an increase of 29.8% to 37,000, and Toyota’s sales rose 9.7% to 178,000, a mere 11,000 short of Ford Motor Company’s Number two position in the U.S. sales race. Honda’s results was its second best November in history (117,000), and its luxury Acura division, with record sales for the RDX crossover, was up +18.9% at 15,000 .
In the all-important Top Ten contest, offshore models took six of the Top Ten selling vehicles in November. The Toyota Camry traded positions with the Dodge Ram pickup to regain its third place spot behind the Ford F-Series and Chevrolet Silverado pickups. Camry is on track to finish 2013 as the top selling car in America for the 12th consecutive year.
Honda remains one of America’s favorite brands as three of its models— Accord, Civic, and CR-V—maintained their places on the month’s top ten list. The Accord at 27,093 took fifth place, the Civic sold 26,291 for sixth and the CR-V occupied the eighth slot as the most popular crossover of the month with sales of 23,509 vehicles. In seventh place, the Nissan Altima sold 24,604 units, while the newly redesigned Toyota Corolla completed the Top Ten list with sales of 22,434 vehicles.
“In November the SAAR topped 16 million for the second time in 2013, proving to many that we are seeing a true and sustainable industry-wide recovery,” said AIADA President Cody Lusk.
