The new car market across North America suffered the full force of recession in 2009, with some worrying trends revealed in the latest figures supplied by JATO Dynamics.
Behind the headlines of U.S. government intervention and Cash for Clunkers lies a shift in consumer demand that has hit upper segment cars and domestic U.S. brands hardest, the company states.
Overall, 3.3 million fewer new cars were purchased in North America in 2009, than in 2008, with 12.6 million total sales.
Across the region, those brands weathering the storm best were lower volume imported marques, with Hyundai (+11.6 percent) and Kia (+11.3 percent) increasing sales volumes. Other winners were Subaru (+15 percent) and Audi, which achieved 5.4 percent growth in H2, albeit with smaller volumes.
By contrast, the three biggest brands, Ford, Toyota and Chevrolet, ended the year 13.8 percent, 18.2 percent and 25.8 percent down, respectively.
David Di Girolamo, head of JATO Consult, says, “The recession of demand and simultaneous, sudden shift to smaller, more economical vehicles has been felt keenly across North America. This has created even more of an opportunity for those lower-volume, importing manufacturers who already offer such vehicles and puts even more pressure on the big, domestic auto makers.”
With 2009 sales down by 2.8 million (21.2 percent), the top five models in the United States new car league were held by import brands, Toyota, Honda and Nissan, with the year’s best-selling car the Toyota Camry.
Domestic U.S. brands still feature, but some have been hit hard by the recession -- for example, the seventh-placed car, the Chevrolet Impala large sedan, whose sales dropped by 37.7 percent versus 2008.
Overall, U.S. car and truck sales were down 20.5 percenrt and 22 percent, respectively, with small and lower medium cars seeing smaller drops in demand, evidence of downsizing amongst those U.S. customers buying new cars.
The Canadian market (2009 total sales: 1.5 million) fared better, dropping only 10.8 percent, with truck sales actually rising 3.6 percent in the second half of the year.
This was perhaps helped by the fact Canadian customers seem to prefer smaller cars, with the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Mazda3 heading the sales list.
More significantly however, truck sales in Canada grew through the second half of the year, with the Ford F-150 topping the list, with total sales of 67,538, (+20.2 percent).
For more information visit www.jato.com.
