A 23.3% year-on-year increase in the sales of passenger cars in September pushed light vehicle sales in the US up to 1,188,865 units, an increase of 12.8% from 1,053,722 vehicles sold a year earlier. The light truck segment, comprising SUVs and pick-ups, improved as well, posting a 3.8% increase in sales.
Passenger car sales reached 600,956 units last month, up from 487,239 a year ago. A total of 587,909 SUVs and pick-ups were sold in the country, compared with 566,483 accounted for in September 2011, Autodata figures show.
Last month’s figures were, however, down compared with August this year, when the automotive industry accounted for sales of 1,285,202 light vehicles.
General Motors led the country’s light vehicle market, selling 210,245 units in September. This figure was an improvement of 1.5% compared with 207,145 in the same month a year earlier. This was GM’s highest September US sales since 2008.
“Passenger cars have been the launch point for a broad and deep GM product offensive. Auto sales will continue to be a bright spot for the US economy, which is particularly good news for GM as we walk into an even stronger cadence of new products in 2013 and 2014,” said Kurt McNeil, Vice President of US sales operations.
Ford was the only Detroit Three OEM to post a year-on-year decline in sales in September. At 174,454 units, sales were down marginally, by 0.2%, compared with 174,860 a year ago. This drop was the result of a 1% drop in Ford’s light truck sales last month.
Toyota posted the largest growth rate among the high-volume vehicle manufacturers in the US last month. The Japanese OEM recorded an increase of 41.5%, with sales rising from 121,451 units in September 2011 to 171,910 units. Both cars and light trucks posted strong year-on-year growth in September.
Toyota group Vice President and General Manager Bill Fay said: “The auto industry had another very encouraging month in September. Our dealers got off to a great start over Labour Day weekend and that momentum carried through the rest of the month.”
Chrysler Group LLC followed Toyota last month, selling 142,041 vehicles, up 11.5% from 127,334 a year ago. This was the group’s best September sales in five years. The Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram Truck and Fiat brands, each posted year-on-year sales growth last month.
“Last month marked our 30th consecutive month of year-over-year sales increases and our strongest September in five years. Going forward with our current product line up, record low interest rates and a stable US economy, we remain optimistic about the health of the US new vehicle sales industry and our position in it,” said Reid Bigland, President and Chief Executive Officer – Dodge Brand, and Head of US sales.
Honda too crossed the 100,000-unit mark last month, selling 117,211 units, up 30.9%. Comparatively, the OEM accounted for sales of 89,532 units in September 2011. Nissan managed sales of 91,907 units last month, which translated into a year-on-year drop of 1.1% from 92,964 units sold a year earlier.
Other major OEMs, such as Volkswagen Group (+32.4%), Hyundai (+15.3%), BMW (+3.5%), Daimler (+8.7%), Subaru (+32.2%) and Kia (+35.1%), also managed sales growth from a year earlier.
With one quarter to go in 2012, light vehicle sales in the US have reached 10,899,949 units, 14.5% more than the 9,518,172 vehicles sold in the January-September 2011 period, Autodata figures show.
