A salesman is seen speaking with customers in the reflection of a car mirror at a Chrysler dealership in Medford, Massachusetts, on Tuesday - Bryan Snider/Reuters
By NICK BUNKLEY
DETROIT — After many miserable months, Ford ended the year with sharply higher sales in December, while Chrysler’s struggles continued into the new year. The Ford Motor Company said Tuesday that its sales in the United States rose 33 percent in December from a year ago, making it the company’s best month since May 2008. Over all for the year, however, Ford’s sales fell 15 percent.
Ford’s crosstown rival, General Motors said its sales declined 6 percent in December, largely because of a 55 percent drop in sales by the four brands it is shutting down. The four brands that it is keeping were up 2 percent.
Chrysler, said its sales for all of 2009 fell below 1 million for the first time since 1962. It sales fell 4 percent in December and 36 percent on the year, to 931,402 vehicles. Its performance in 2009 was the worst among major automakers.
Chrysler also announced more buyer incentives, including “zero percent financing” for almost all 2010 models.
Sales increased 24 percent at Honda, 18 percent at Nissan, 9 percent at BMW, 8 percent at Mercedes and 44 percent at Kia.
Ford estimated that its market share rose 1 percentage point in 2009, to 15 percent. That would represent Ford’s first full-year share increase since 1995.
“Ford’s plan is working,” Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president for United States marketing, sales and service, said in a statement. “Customer consideration continues to grow for our high-quality, fuel-efficient vehicles”.
Shares of Ford, the only Detroit automaker to avoid bankruptcy, reached their highest level since 2005 on Tuesday, rising 8.5 percent to $11.15 in midday trading. They were worth as little as $1.50 in January 2009.
Other automakers, including General Motors and Toyota, are scheduled to release their December sales figures Tuesday afternoon.
Automakers expect the year ahead to be much less turbulent than 2009, when both G.M. and Chrysler borrowed billions of dollars from the federal government before filing for bankruptcy protection, though sales are expected to improve only modestly.
In a positive sign, the industry’s seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate has been rising steadily for several months, ending 2009 at around 11 million vehicles, analysts estimated.
“Excluding the cash-for-clunkers months, this would constitute the strongest sales rate since September 2008, suggesting the industry is witnessing a real improvement in underlying demand for U.S. autos which bodes well for 2010,” Brian A. Johnson, an automotive analyst with Barclays Capital, wrote in a recent note to clients.
Still, the industry has considerable ground to make up. Sales in the United States were down 24 percent in the first 11 months of 2009, making 2009 the worst year in at least 27 years. Slow sales in December could make 2009 the worst since 1970.
Sales would have been even more dismal but for the government’s “cash-for-clunkers” program, which gave credits of up to $4,500 to new-vehicle buyers who turned in an older, less-efficient car or truck to be destroyed. The program, which started in late July, burned through $3 billion in about a month.
Only three automakers — Hyundai and Kia, which are affiliated in South Korea, and Subaru — sold more vehicles in 2009 than they did in 2008.
The New York Times
