TRDFantasy,

I can see how one can find it misleading. Looking deeper into what GM is reporting, they still had overall growth of 21%, which means GM is probably doing a very good job retaining Pontiac, Saturn, and Hummer customers within the other GM divisions. I don't think that was quite the case when Oldsmobile got axed.

 

For example.
http://www.freep.com/article/2010032...ers-in-new-way

 

And the U.S. is a key market.

 

Those numbers don't add up. That only gives roughly 72% of fleet market share. Who had the other remaining 28% share of fleet sales? Hyundai and Kia?

 

probably combination of alot of brands.

no way hyundai/kia have 28% market share. it seems like hyundai didn't even have a big fleet sales. over 16k sonata was sold in retails.

 

Traditionally, Hyundai/Kia has had a strong presence in rental car fleets. Mostly Accent's, Elantra's, and Sonata's. I'm sure it still remains a good number.

I know fleet sales have a negative reputation but a reasonable percentage of total sales isn't a bad thing if the cars are great cars that do indeed sell on the market on it's own merit. Toyota has the highest percentage of the fleet market but that's in correlation to being the largest automaker. Most automakers aren't desperately selling to fleets to stay afloat [like Chrysler]. It shouldn't be looked upon as degradation of a brand if done in the right balance. I don't see a problem with company's desiring the Prius. More power to Toyota.

 

Wow, I just noticed Audi sales. Even though they have a "strong" lineup consisting of many model lines and variations, they still don't sell well. Most of their models seem like sales flops to me

 

That's because Americans want cars that aren't plagued with problems.

I don't know why Europeans put up with it.

 

Maybe it's because the supposed poor reliability of Audi and VW products is overblown? People seem to think that something goes wrong daily on these cars, which isn't the case.

 

When compared to Toyota and Honda (in particular), it isn't overblown. Not saying that German cars are a constant problem but the headaches are plentiful enough. Working at a car dealer, I drive thousands of trade-ins a year and sample how every make and model stands up. Sorry, but the German cars are rats. The interiors are disgraceful how they fall apart. Electronic issues are always an annoyance.

In my experience, I wouldn't want anything other than a Toyota for the long haul.

 

Canadian Auto Sales Up 14.1%;
Ford on Top

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian auto sales rose for a fourth month in March, with Ford taking the sales crown and General Motors Co , until recently the market leader, dropping out of the top three.

Canadians bought 145,428 vehicles last month. That's up 14.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc.

"A very good month even by historical standard," said Dennis DesRosiers, president of the firm.

"This puts YTD (year to date) sales up 15 percent and sets Canada on track for a 1.55 to 1.6 million sales year."

Ford sold 22,018 vehicles in March, up 29.1 percent from a year earlier. Car sales rose 19.4 percent and trucks gained 32 percent.

Ford was the only one of the Detroit-based auto companies not to go into bankruptcy protection during the recession, relying on financing it arranged before the downturn.

"The easiest thing that a manufacturer or anyone can do during a downturn is draw back in terms of your investments," Ford of Canada Chief Executive David Mondragon said in an interview. "We didn't do that, we had our resources in place to continue to invest aggressively and the benefits of those investments are coming to market today."

"If you look at our market share as a company, right now we are the number one manufacturer in Canada for the first quarter with sales up 29 percent."

Sales at Toyota Canada rose 24.5 percent to 19,792 vehicles even as its executives were called to testify in front of Canadian lawmakers during the month.

The company was accused of taking too long to inform the government of safety problems that led to a massive recall earlier in the year. Canada's transport minister said his department would launch an investigation into the matter and consider toughening disclosure laws.

The automaker's Toyota division reported a 27.2 percent rise, while its luxury Lexus brand dipped 4.4 percent.

Chrysler sold 19,470 vehicles in the month, up 22.2 percent. Its passenger car sales fell 18.6 percent, while truck sales jumped 34.2 percent.

GM sales dropped 22.2 percent to 19,433 vehicles. Car sales were down 22.8 percent, while truck sales fell 22 percent.

DesRosiers called GM's decline "shocking."

"This puts GM's market share YTD at an all-time record low, at least for the modern history of the automotive sector, of only 14.7 percent to the end of March. You would have to go back to the period between 1915 and 1919 to find GM's market share below 15 percent," he said.

Honda Canada posted a 15 percent March sales increase to 14,389 vehicles. Sales in the Honda division gained 11 percent, while the Acura division was up 51 percent year-on-year.

 

Audi does not offer aggressive leases like many of the others and this hurts sales. Audi also has said while demand is high they are not exporting more cars here. This hurts allocation and people wanting an Audi as they have to wait.

Audi has a much better product but I still shake my head at the way they do business here. Now they are saying they are chasing profits not sales so maybe they are quite happy with the growth they have. However I think people want Audi's and they could sell more without reverting to crazy incentives or leases.

 

Wow, so Toyota outsold Chrysler and GM in Canada. Impressive, as this doesn't happen often, and especially considering the battering that Toyota's reputation took recently.

Total fail for Honda. Hyundai/Kia outsold Honda/Acura in Canada by quite a bit.

 

TRD,

I'm sure it wasn't the intention of the fleet mag to publish the complete breakdown. Never the less, the data I consider as accurate as provided from a legit source in the industry. As for who makes up the other 28%, I'm sure Hyundai and Kia make up the largest portion of that, but I know Mazda, VW, even the European makes have fleet sales. My point for citing, even partial numbers, was simply to counter 1SICKLEX's claim about GM and Ford back to their old ways.

 

Context also means looking at incentives - and Honda and Hyundai had the lowest incentives for March.

Aside from factoring in incentives, can't just compare based on March 2009 nos.

If one looks back to March 2008 figures...

2008/2010 March

164,564/133,165 - Chevy
187,828/159,367 - Ford
125,446/96,540 - Honda
93,100/85,526 - Nissan
192,791/166,644 - Toyota
42,796 /47,002 - Hyundai
24,871/30,522 - Kia

none of the other major, mainstream automakers (aside from HK) have yet to meet, much less surpass, their 2008 nos. (Nissan comes the closest, but they have also been throwing wads of $$ on the hood in order to move metal.)

Both the Gen sedan and coupe are in entirely diff. segments than the ES.

Otoh, the Gen sedan is still outselling the GS by quite a bit.