Welcome back! I hope you had a great holiday weekend and perhaps enjoyed a long drive in a great set of wheels.
This week’s news got a jump start as automakers released details on August sales.
Overall sales rose 4.1 percent at Ford thinks to continuing strong demand for its F-150 trucks, SUV’s and the Lincoln Navigator.
“F-Series completed 16 straight months of sales gains, while Ford Brand SUVs were up 21 percent in August. With greater production output and stronger stock positions, our two newest products had a terrific August,” said Mark LeNeve, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service.
He was referring to the Navigator and the Ford Expedition.
Forecasters thought Fiat Chrysler would post a big sales increase, and it did, up 10 percent. And once again, that double digit gain came from Jeep and the Ram truck line. Light duty truck sales increased 55 percent last month over the same period a year earlier.
Thanks to a 60 percent gain in demand for the Pilot and the Acura RDX, Honda posted a 1.3 percent sales gain last month. Car sales were down about the same amount that truck sales rose at Honda, 15 percent and nearly 19 percent.
Over at Nissan, sales rose 3.7 percent and like most of the others, the gain was driven by trucks, crossovers and SUV’s. Rogue sales rose 12 percent for an August sales record.
Toyota said overall sales declined 2 percent despite the best ever month for light truck sales. The Tacoma truck and the Highlander SUV were much in demand, but cars were not.
But Volkswagen said its redesigned Jetta racked up the best single sales month for any VW vehicle in the U.S. this year. Overall demand for VW’s was up just a fraction, at seven-tenths of one percent. So far this year, the Atlas and Tiguan have accounted for nearly half of VW sales.
Several analysts predicted sales would be higher when compared to August of 2017 when two hurricanes hit the U.S. and kept customers out of showrooms in the South.
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