Ford’s April auto sales fall; Chrysler, Toyota rise

Joe Miller

Tuesday, May 4, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, said U.S. sales fell 4.1 percent in April while DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler and Toyota Motor Corp. gained from newer models and a rebounding economy.

Ford's sales declined for the fifth month in seven to 285,675 vehicles from April of last year. Chrysler, the third-largest U.S. carmaker, said sales rose 1 percent to 189,011. Among Japanese automakers, Toyota rose 10 percent, Nissan Motor Co. increased 14 percent and Honda Motor Co. dropped 2.4 percent, its second straight monthly decline.

U.S. auto sales probably rose in April as tax refunds, an expanding economy and new models helped General Motors Corp., which spends the most on incentives, Toyota and Nissan gain market share, analysts said. A computer failure forced General Motors to delay its report until today.

"When people feel their jobs are more secure, they're more confident buying big-ticket items like cars and homes," said Dan Genter, chief investment officer at Los Angeles-based Genter Capital Management, which holds $1.6 billion of debt securities, including Ford bonds.

Sales at Detroit-based General Motors probably rose 4.5 percent in April, based on a survey of analysts by Thomson Financial. Asian automakers are expected to boost their share of the U.S. new vehicle market because of new models and a reputation for better-built vehicles.

U.S. vehicles probably sold at a pace that would yield sales of 16.6 million in a year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on reported sales and the estimated General Motors increase. That's up from a yearly rate of 16.4 million in April 2003 and 16.7 million in March.

Sales of the Ford Focus small car fell 1.1 percent to 18,253. Sales of the Explorer, the top-selling sport-utility, declined 7.7 percent to 27,858 and the Expedition SUV fell 34 percent to 11,831. Chrysler car sales fell 5 percent to 45,712 as the Sebring and Dodge Stratus sedans declined.

"Ford doesn't have the bevy of new models that GM has," said Dan Poole, vice president of equity research at National City Corp. in Cleveland, which manages $23 billion, including automaker shares. "Even Chrysler has a lot of new sheet metal."

Chrysler truck sales, which are 76 percent of total volume, rose 3 percent to 143,299 from increases deliveries of Dodge Durango and Jeep Liberty sport-utility vehicles. Sales of 300 series large sedans, among nine new models the automaker will introduce this year, almost quadrupled to 9,543 vehicles.

Toyota, Asia's biggest automaker, said its U.S. sales rose to 167,129 vehicles helped by gains for Camry sedans and Prius gasoline-electric cars. The Toyota and Scion brands posted a 10 percent gain. Lexus division sales climbed 11 percent.

Nissan, Japan's second-largest automaker, said U.S. sales rose to 69,470 vehicles on increased demand for Titan pickup trucks and Altima sedans. Sales increased 14 percent to 59,491 for the Nissan brand and 13 percent to 9,979 for the Infiniti brand, the company said.

Honda, Japan's third-biggest automaker, said U.S. sales of cars and light trucks fell to 114,929 vehicles in April from the same month last year, led by lower sales of Accord sedans and Odyssey minivans. Sales fell 4.1 percent for Honda-brand vehicles and rose 9.2 percent for Acura sports cars and light trucks.

During the first quarter, the market share for domestic brands sold by General Motors, Ford and Chrysler declined to 59.1 percent from 60.2 percent in the year-earlier period, according to Autodata Corp. Asian automakers captured 34.6 percent, up from 32.8 percent, Autodata said.

Autodata declined to estimate April market share without General Motors' sales report.

Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest carmaker, said U.S. sales of Volkswagen-brand vehicles rose 1 percent in April as demand for the Passat, Golf and Touareg models gained. Volkswagen sold 25,667 vehicles in the U.S. compared with 25,412 units in the year-earlier month, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker said.