GM, Japanese automakers finish '98 with strong sales
(Recasts, adds details, revises GM to exclude Saab, medium
duty trucks)
By Todd Nissen
DETROIT, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Higher sales from General Motors
Corp. and top Japanese automakers on Wednesday pushed the U.S.
auto industry to its second-best year ever amid close-out
incentives, demand for trucks and a healthy economy.
Automakers sold 15,594,342 cars and light trucks in 1998,
up 2.9 percent from 1997 and the highest total since 16.1
million units were sold in 1986. December U.S. sales jumped 7
percent to 1,344,129. The December seasonally adjusted annual
selling rate hit 17.3 million, its highest rate of 1998.
Sales of light trucks -- pickup trucks, sport utility
vehicles and minivans rose 10.4 percent in December from a year
earlier, outpacing sales of passenger cars, which rose 4
percent. This continued a year-long trend of light truck sales
growing faster than passenger car sales.
Analysts suspected the December results were padded by
automakers pulling January sales into December to help their
final market share figures.
"December can be a real long month," said Michael Luckey of
the Luckey Consulting Group. "There's no doubt in my mind this
year and last year they took sales out of early January."
GM, the world's largest automaker, surprised analysts with
December light vehicle sales of 401,658, up 2.7 percent. Car
sales rose 1.2 percent to 212,776. Sales of pickup trucks,
sport utilities and minivans climbed 4.4 percent to 188,882.
GM said its December truck sales, and the 2,150,076 trucks
it sold in all of 1998, were both record numbers. Car sales for
the year fell 8.6 percent to 2,458,688, in part reflecting two
labor strikes in the summer. GM had a 3.4 percent decline for
the year to 4,552,789.
Roy Roberts, GM's sales and marketing chief, credited the
December increase in part to new products such as the
Oldsmobile Intrigue and Alero cars, which lifted total
Oldsmobile sales up 8.2 percent. GM's seven new mid-sized car
models rose 13 percent in December.
All GM divisions selling trucks had sales increases. The
company's Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Pontiac front-wheel drive
minivans had a combined December sales increase of 15.2
percent.
"We're using our wide portfolio of products from
conservative styling to trend-setting design to meet the needs
of our customers," Roberts said in a statement
Toyota Motor Corp. <7203.T>, Japan's largest automaker, and
Honda Motor Co. Ltd. <7267.T>, in a duel for the best-selling
car title, both reported year-end sales records.
Toyota said its December U.S. vehicle sales jumped 19
percent to 138,720. Sales for all of 1998 hit a record
1,361,025, an increase of 10.6 percent.
Toyota's Camry sedan had total 1998 sales of 429,575,
making it the best-selling car in the U.S. for the second year
in a row. The Honda Accord finished in second place with
401,071, up 4.3 percent for the year. The third-place Ford
Taurus had 1998 sales of 371,074.
Honda had a December U.S. vehicle sales gain of 6.3 percent
to 83,936. Sales for the year rose 7.4 percent to 1,009,600,
the first time they ever topped one million units.
For December, Honda got big gains from truck products,
including a 46 percent increase in CR-V small sport utility
vehicles to 8,521.
"The consumer thirst for light trucks was the big industry
news for 1998 and the same was true at American Honda, with
light truck sales up nearly 35 percent," said Dick Colliver,
executive vice president of American Honda.
Other Japanese automakers reporting sales gains included
Subaru, a unit of Fuji Heavy Industries Inc. <7270.T>, which
had a 7.8 percent increase in December sales, and an increase
of 10.5 percent for the year. Mitsubishi Motor Corp. <7211.T>
had a rise of 16.7 percent in December and a 0.7 percent
increase for 1998.
On Tuesday, Ford Motor Co. reported light vehicle
sales increased 6.8 percent to 320,290. DaimlerChrysler AG
said sales for all brands except
Mercedes-Benz rose 6.9 percent to 203,325.
Analysts and industry officials predict 1999 will cool off,
but still stay relatively strong. Luckey at Luckey consulting
predicted 1999 light vehicle sales will be 14.8-14.9 million
units.
(Detroit Newsroom, 313-870-0200)
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