March US auto sales numbers are now all out, and as expected most of the numbers came in negative territory.
Ford Motor's (NYSE:F) sales were -9% to 264,975 total US units, compared to estimates of -17.2%. Ford is actually surprising since it was the one expected to have the largest drop and may not have that much to look forward to until this summer when its 2008 Ford Taurus is reintroduced. March total sales in 2006 were also the highest month of the year in 2006.
DaimlerChrysler (NYSE:DCX) posted sales at -5%, but they were really -8% on an adjusted basis for similar number of selling days. Sales were expected to be -6.2%. Things could have been worse considering that car buyers don't know what brand they will ultimately be owning if they go for a Chrysler. If they are in a sell-off or if the brands get split up, it will be interesting to see what happens as to how they calculate sales.
General Motors (NYSE:GM) said its sales -7.7% but retail was -6.2%. Sales were expected to be -1.2%. US trucks were -11.3% and its cars were -1.4%. The bright spot for GM is its Chinese growth that Doug McIntyre discussed this morning.
Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) was the hands-down winner at +11.8% (+7.7% adjusted for the one day extra) in sales, although estimates were expected to be +8.8%. We'll see how this does through time as trucks become more and more prevalent.
Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
Big 3 sales continue to drop
Posted Apr 3rd 2007 3:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Products and services, Daimler (DAI), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Economic data
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