Auto Industry Archive

October 2008

Toyota will probably get a lot of takers for its current zero-percent financing offer, even though the recent Employee Discount for Everyone from General Motors didn’t set the market on its ear, like it did in 2005, or like zero-percent financing did, back in 2001. That’s because this will be the first such big, zero-percent incentive blowout for Toyota, and because Toyota probably...

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U.S. consumer confidence improved marginally for the third month in a row in September since a recent low in June, but remained at a dismal level compared with a year ago, according to The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey. In addition, of the 5,000 U.S. households polled, only 1.5 percent said they planned to buy an automobile in the next six months, a Conference Board record low....

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The politicking is far from over regarding the $700 billion financial-industry bailout passed by Congress last week, formally known as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Opinion was divided among Michigan legislators, for instance, even though on the face of it, “Economic Stabilization” is something the auto industry desperately needs, to free up credit for consumers...

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Sales for one of the nation’s biggest automakers fell an alarming 32.3 percent last month, including a 62-percent drop for its top-selling, midsize SUV. The company responded with zero-percent financing for 11 of its biggest-selling models. Sounds like one of the Detroit 3 domestic automakers, right? Wrong, it was Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. That was the biggest percentage drop in...

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Bailout or no bailout, the credit crisis is going to take some time to fix. The auto industry is going to stay in its own private recession for at least the next several months, and maybe the rest of the U.S. economy, as well. “Things are still going to be tough for a while. The main thing will be credit,” said Michael Luckey, an independent auto industry analyst with Luckey...

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Of course the most credit-challenged customers are having the hardest time getting auto loans. But at least some customers who have every reason to assume they are “prime” customers, in the lowest-risk category, are also getting turned down for auto loans that would have been approved before the present credit crisis. After they’re turned down, some of those good risks...

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Sales for most automotive luxury brands fell hard in September, as affluent car shoppers stayed home and watched the financial-industry crisis unfold on TV and in the newspapers. Consumers are “keeping their hands on their wallets,” said Don Esmond, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., in an Oct. 1 conference call. U.S. auto sales...

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U.S. auto showrooms were disturbingly empty at the end of September. “It was tantamount, really, to a natural disaster, in the kinds of showroom traffic and ‘ups’ (shoppers) in showrooms we’re accustomed to in the event of a large storm, or – and I hate to say this — immediately following a 9/11 situation,” said George Pipas, U.S. sales analysis manager...

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Porsche had record worldwide sales in its most recent fiscal year despite a falloff in U.S. sales. Worldwide unit sales grew 1.2 percent to 98,652, in the fiscal year ended July 31, the company said on Oct. 1. Revenue increased 1.3 percent from the year-ago period, to 7.46 billion euros, or about $10.5 billion at the current exchange rate. In its understated way, Porsche noted a...

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