April 2012 Sales Thread
05-30-12, 04:40 AM
#76
FleetSales
The players are changing in the fleet business, especially in sales to daily rental companies. As General Motors, Ford and Hyundai-Kia back off, others are rushing in.
For Nissan, Chrysler and Volkswagen, fleet is an integrated part of aggressive growth strategies, with Nissan even pushing dealers into local-level fleet deals -- so-called "fleet-tail." For Mazda and others, fleet is a lifeline to relieve bloated inventories.
Fleet is the stepchild of the auto industry. Few automakers discuss their participation, but almost everyone sells to fleet customers. Most years it's a fifth of U.S. light-vehicle sales, according to Edmunds.com, TrueCar.com and the Automotive News Data Center. Edmunds.com put 2011 fleet sales at 2.5 million units.
Perhaps because public sales data are so spotty and definitions of fleet business are so fuzzy, the fleet business -- especially the portion involving daily rental fleets -- has many critics. Dealers say daily rental fleet sales damage a brand's resale values. Financial analysts see it as an unprofitable dumping ground.
Not so, says Kevin Koswick, fleet boss at Ford Motor Co. "The fleet business is a profitable business" for Ford, he said in a recent interview. "All of it is profitable."
Ford and GM dominate the commercial and government sectors, which Ford said in 2011 was 39% of total fleet business. Commercial is mostly pickups and other trucks, and government sales are largely police cars. Ford and GM, and to a lesser extent Chrysler and Toyota Motor Sales, have the products to compete in those sectors, Koswick said.
"Everybody wants a fleet business, but not everybody can do it," he said. "Many automakers don't have the full product range, and few have the staff and expertise to run it well."
But the biggest chunk of fleet, the 61% of sales to daily rental companies, is drawing more import-brand competition in recent years, Koswick said.
In the 1st 4 months of 2012, the total fleet mix has jumped for Toyota, Mazda, Nissan and Volkswagen brands compared with 2011 levels, TrueCar.com says, and is flat or falling for Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, Hyundai and Kia.
Nissan North America is a prime example of a company using fleet in an aggressive push to boost total U.S. sales. The past 16 months, fleet has grown even faster than retail. The fleet mix this year is 23%, up from 13% for all of 2010, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
"Nissan sees weakness at Honda and Hyundai-Kia limited by capacity and feels this is a real opportunity to recoup some market share," said one Nissan dealer. "So it's pushing both retail and fleet."
Starting in early 2011, Nissan also encouraged "fleet-tail" by dealers, changing policies to let dealers sell multiple units to daily rental fleets and letting its retailers count those deals as retail units that qualify toward monthly stair-step bonus programs, said a Southeastern Nissan dealer who asked not to be identified.
PHP Code:
Changing reliance
Fleet sales as a percent of total sales
2011 2012 (4 mos.)
Chevrolet 30% 31%
Dodge 35% 26%
Ford 30% 29%
Hyundai 11% 9%
Kia 11% 8%
Mazda 19% 31%
Nissan 18% 23%
Toyota 10% 15%
Volkswagen 9% 17%
Source: TrueCar.com
Nissan lets medium-sized dealers count up to 25 units per quarter of daily rental deals and 10 units per month of rental buys toward their stair-step, but the dealer said he avoids both because he would be "just building a bubble for myself a year later."
2 other Nissan dealers confirmed the policies, and one defended it vigorously.
"I don't see anything wrong with it," the dealer said. "We prefer to sell retail and avoid fleet because we lose F&I, service business and word-of-mouth. But selling fleet-tail is just a way to move some aged inventory."
Nissan Division General Manager Al Castignetti said: "We have been diligent at holding fleet sales as a certain percentage of our retail sales in recent years, and continue to do so."
Volkswagen Group of America also is using fleet in its ambitious drive to more than double U.S. sales by 2018, to 800,000 for VW and 200,000 for Audi.
By Edmunds.com's count, VW group's fleet mix more than doubled, from 10.4% in 2008 to 23% in the 1st 2 months of this year. TrueCar.com, measuring by brand, said VW's fleet mix for the 1st 4 months of this year is 17.2%, almost double the 8.7% for all of 2011.
After heavy reliance on fleet sales to survive after its bankruptcy, Chrysler Group has slashed fleet volume. In 2011 it cut fleet volume by 4%, while retail sales jumped 43%. In 4 months this year, fleet sales are up 27% but retail volume is even loftier: 37% higher.
Ford's Kevin Koswick: "Everybody wants a fleet business but not everybody can do it."
For Mazda, heavy fleet sales mask its retail struggles. Total Mazda sales through April are up 22% to 103,529 units. But TrueCar.com says the brand's fleet mix is 31% this year, up sharply from 19% in 2011. That suggests that without fleet, Mazda sales would be falling in a rising marketplace.
Toyota Motor Sales has increased its fleet mix sharply this year, which Toyota brand chief Bob Carter attributes to make-goods to fleet clients bypassed last year when Toyota diverted its production to dealers after the March earthquake in Japan. Fleet is 15% of the mix through April, compared with full-year figures of 8% in both 2010 and 2011.
Detroit is not alone in reducing reliance on fleet. In 2008, Hyundai-Kia Automotive sold 22% of its volume to fleets, Edmunds.com said. Through April, the mix is down to 10% this year as Hyundai-Kia tries to keep U.S. dealers stocked despite capacity constraints, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
Jeremy Anwyl, CEO of Edmunds.com, said most automakers try to limit daily rental fleet volume. But the sector is always a quick-fix temptation.
"Too much fleet affects residual value -- but that's down the road," he said. "If you have 10,000 too many of a model, it's pretty hard not to pick up the phone and cut a fleet deal."
You can reach Jesse Snyder at jsnyder@crain.com.
05-30-12, 09:40 AM
#77
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Prius becomes the second best selling car WORLDWIDE in Q1 2012, after Corolla
2nd best selling, according to TTAC:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...de-in-q1-2012/
Or 3rd best selling, according to Bloomberg:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...top-three.html
Either way it's a tremendous jump for the Prius.
First Quarter 2012 Top 20 best-selling models worldwide (TTAC's version)
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...de-in-q1-2012/
Or 3rd best selling, according to Bloomberg:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...top-three.html
Either way it's a tremendous jump for the Prius.
First Quarter 2012 Top 20 best-selling models worldwide (TTAC's version)
Code:
Pos Model Q1 2012 2011 Pos ’11 1 Toyota Corolla 285,352 1,141,709 1 2 Toyota Prius 242,947 367,627 42 3 Ford Focus 236,261 882,551 2 4 VW Jetta 202,804 695,159 10 5 Toyota Camry 196,892 621,679 12 6 Ford Fiesta 193,842 767,465 5 7 VW Golf 191,532 864,452 3 8 Chevrolet Cruze 188,863 704,691 8 9 Nissan Tiida/ 187,867 568,319 15 10 VW Passat 182,405 628,097 11 11 VW Polo 181,805 788,789 4 12 Hyundai Elantra 173,894 751,967 6 13 Ford F-Series 173,153 698,319 9 14 Wuling Sunshine 152,681 731,689 7 15 Hyundai Accent 152,646 541,519 19 16 Honda CR-V 147,199 530,000 20 17 Suzuki Swift/Dzire 142,456 399,446 31 18 Honda Civic 141,541 555,071 17 19 Toyota Yaris/Vios 137,168 556,092 16 20 Suzuki Alto 129,562 549,931 18
05-30-12, 09:57 AM
#79
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Plus we all know that the Prius is so far only popular in 1st-world countries. By including numbers from more 3rd-world countries it actually makes sense that the Prius's ranking would fall.
05-30-12, 11:39 AM
#80
I think it's quite the opposite, noticing how Bloomberg's numbers are all higher than TTAC's.
Plus we all know that the Prius is so far only popular in 1st-world countries. By including numbers from more 3rd-world countries it actually makes sense that the Prius's ranking would fall.
Plus we all know that the Prius is so far only popular in 1st-world countries. By including numbers from more 3rd-world countries it actually makes sense that the Prius's ranking would fall.
05-30-12, 12:07 PM
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Bloomberg is a pretty well-regarded media company and its reports are often quoted by many other well-regarded news companies too, so I don't think it's right to discount the truthfulness of this report of theirs just because Bloomberg's journalists did their own research.
EDIT:
Now that I read bestsellingcarsblog.com's About page, the guy only covers countries with more than 1 million people. So there's where the deficit to Bloomberg's numbers may come from.
Last edited by ydooby; 05-30-12 at 12:27 PM.
05-30-12, 12:46 PM
#82
I'm sorry but what you just said makes no sense at all. First you say "there is no single company that tracks worldwide sales of cars" and then all of a sudden "TTACs numbers are backed by real info"?
Bloomberg is a pretty well-regarded media company and its reports are often quoted by many other well-regarded news companies too, so I don't think it's right to discount the truthfulness of this report of theirs just because Bloomberg's journalists did their own research.
EDIT:
Now that I read bestsellingcarsblog.com's About page, the guy only covers countries with more than 1 million people. So there's where the deficit to Bloomberg's numbers may come from.
Bloomberg is a pretty well-regarded media company and its reports are often quoted by many other well-regarded news companies too, so I don't think it's right to discount the truthfulness of this report of theirs just because Bloomberg's journalists did their own research.
EDIT:
Now that I read bestsellingcarsblog.com's About page, the guy only covers countries with more than 1 million people. So there's where the deficit to Bloomberg's numbers may come from.
bbcb sources are actual car registrations in those countries.
05-30-12, 12:52 PM
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I dont think it matters if it is 2nd or 3rd, I am saying that bestsellingcarsblog.com uses real sources to show their numbers, Bloomberg doesnt even say where it got their source - to me that sounds as Manfuacturer being the source which means production and not real sales.
bbcb sources are actual car registrations in those countries.
bbcb sources are actual car registrations in those countries.
Again, bscb's owner clearly states he's only covering 160 countries, and there are 196 countries in the world! The Prius is very likely not sold at all in most of those smaller countries (but they need cars too!), hence why bscb's Prius sales number is only a few thousands away from Bloomberg's Prius number while bscb's numbers of the other cars have much bigger gaps to Bloomberg's.
Last edited by ydooby; 05-30-12 at 02:55 PM.
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