Hyundai, Kia Post U.S. Sales Surge as Honda’s Inventory Constraints Linger

Quote: (GM)Ford Motor Co. (F)Fiat SpA. (F) ‘Lost Some Momentum’ Don Johnson, GM’s vice president of U.S. sales, said on a conference call yesterday. “We do believe that it will continue to recover, but more gradually than we originally anticipated as we move through the second half of the year.” Congressional debate over raising the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling, combined with higher gasoline prices and limited supply of small vehicles, hurt the industry last month, he said. Toyota reported sales of 130,802 Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles, down from 169,224 a year earlier. The drop was narrower than the 25 percent average decline of three analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. “July marked the first full month of normal production for eight of 12 North American-built models,” Jeff Bracken, U.S. vice president for Toyota-brand sales, said in a conference call. Those models include Camry, Corolla and Avalon sedans, Matrix hatchbacks, Highlander and Sequoia sport-utility vehicles, Sienna minivans and Venza wagons. Toyota Supplies of the Prius, the top-selling hybrid, rose in July and will keep growing for the rest of the year, said Randy Pflughaupt, the Toyota City, Japan-based company’s U.S. group vice president. Full-year sales of the model “should end ahead of last year,” he said in a conference call. The addition of a redesigned Camry, a new Yaris subcompact, the Prius v wagon and the Scion iQ minicar later this year should accelerate Toyota’s sales rebound, Bracken said. Toyota’s July market share fell to 12.3 percent from 12.8 percent a year earlier, according to Autodata. Honda, the Japanese automaker that relies most on U.S. sales, said deliveries of its Honda and Acura vehicles fell to 80,502 from 112,437, the biggest volume drop of any automaker in July. The decline was steeper than the 23 percent average of three analyst estimates. The Tokyo-bas...
Open whole article (external link)