Hot August Auto Sales as the Market Maintains an Even Strain

The much-overused Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) is undergoing change, General Motors says. Volatility is giving way to slow, steady improvement as reflected in this year’s sales efforts to-date. The Calendar Year To-Date SAAR is at 14.3 million for the first eight months, smack-dab in the middle of GM’s beginning-of-year prediction of 14.0- to 14.5-million units.

It spiked to a 14.6 million SAAR in August, or just under 1.3 million units total. This picture of the auto industry looks much more like the economy in general; moving in the right direction, but not quickly enough. Many economists predicted after the Fall 2008 Lehman Brothers crash that the U.S. economy going forward would look like Japan’s long, slow climb from its severe recession of the early ‘90s — a kind of extended malaise.

Since the recovery began, corporate profits have had healthy improvement, while employment and middle-class wages and salaries have stumbled. Those corporations are taking advantage of steady increases in productivity and efficiency, while they remain cautious because those same middle-class consumers aren’t confident about spending money.

How, then, to explain that car sales are up? Automaker analysts point to the aged U.S. fleet. It’s more than 10 years on average, and pent-up demand is helping the industry. But the unemployed and underemployed aren’t putting mileage on their 2002 Toyota Camrys, and they certainly can’t replace them.

Both Ford and GM point to the housing market, which has been experiencing a more healthy recovery in the past few months. The full-size pickup truck market, tied closely to the housing market now that suburban cowboys have given up on leather-clad F-150s, Rams and Sierras, accounted for 11.2% of the industry last month, Ford Motor Company says. That’s up from 10.7% in July and 10.2% in June. Ford and GM expect an even better autumn, as pickup truck commercials infest the World Series broadcasts, and NCAA and NFL football.

If that’s what it takes to boost car and truck sales — Chevrolet credits last month’s Cruze sales to its heavy advertising on NBC’s Summer Olympics broadcasts — the auto sales recovery is more than pent-up demand to replace 10-year-old cars and trucks. Five-year-old models, maybe.

The question I have is, are any of you able to pull second mortgages out of your homes to buy new cars and trucks?

A reminder that Toyota, Honda and Subaru numbers compare with supply-stricken 2011 sales.

With that, to the numbers …

1. GM: 240,520, up 10.1%.

Chevrolet Camaro was off 2.2% to 6675, but still beat Ford Mustang, up 11.7%, to 6387. Dodge sold 3322 Challengers, up 5% to 3311.
Chevy Cruze had its best month, ever, at 25,975, +19.1%. GM credited heavy-duty advertising on NBC’s summer Olympics coverage, though a full 30 percent were fleet sales. Cruze had almost no fleet sales in July, and GM says full-year fleet will account for about 20 percent.
Chevy Sonic also had a record month, at 8703. Spark sales totaled 2630 and Volt had its best month on record, at 2831, up 837.4%.
Chevy Malibu was off 18.8%, to 14,495, while Impala was up 28%, to 17,066. Chevy says the old Malibu is selling out quickly.
Chevy Equinox had a good month, up 21.8%, to 20,231.
Chevy Silverado (38,295, +4%) and GMC Sierra (14,495, + 9.4%) combined for 52,790.
Buick sold 5200 Veranos, and 5593 LaCrosses (+3.2%), though Regal was off 45.8%, to 2072. They’re high-content Regals, though. Buick says 18% are GS and 42% are turbos. Buick sold 18,000 units in August, up 12.4%.
Cadillac was up 11.3%, to 14,704. SRX led the way, at 5203, +12.4%.
CTS was off 11.2%, to 5136, while Cadillac sold 2158 XTS models.

2. Ford Motor Company: 197,249, up 12.6%.

F-Series was up 19.3 %, to 58,201.
Fusion led sedans, at 21,690, up 21%.
Focus had a good month, at 19,073, up 35.3%.
But Fiesta continues to falter, off 28.4%, to 4176.
Taurus sales were up 8.6%, to 5421, plus 1289 Interceptor police sedans.
Escape was up 36.8%, to 28,188. Ford says “almost 80%” of last month’s Escape sales were the new model, and of that, 90% were EcoBoost models. Ford declined to delineate between 1.6- and 2.0-liter EcoBoost.
Explorer was up 33%, to 13,168.
Lincoln division was up 1.7 percent, to 8141.
MKZ was up 42.4%, to 3327, though MKS was of 32%, to 1019.

3. Toyota Motor Sales: 188,520, up 45.6%.

Toyota says its “sportiest” Camry, the SE, is now its most popular and skews to younger buyers, replacing the LE trim level. Production of the SE now is more than 40% of Camry production. Total Camry sales last month was 36,720, up 21.6%.
Prius was up 122.4 percent, to 21,111, though this now consists of 13,311 liftbacks (versus 9491 Priuses August ’11), 3315 Prius v models, 3428 c models and 1047 plug-ins.
Corolla was up 48.1%, to 24,311.
Tundra had a strong month, at 11,347, up 68.1%.
FR-S was Scion’s second-bestselling model, at 1913. Scion tC was up 113.5%, to 2378. The youth-oriented sub-brand had a great month, up 111.6%, o 7722.
Lexus ES, 54% of them the new model, was up 94.4%, to 7557.
Lexus RX was up 32.7%, to 8628. In the lux-brand wars, Lexus managed 24,237 units, up 33.9%.

4. Chrysler Group: 148,472, up 14%.

Chrysler 300 had a 65% jump, to 4668, but the Dodge Charger, aided by police pursuit fleet sales, was up 30% to 5419.
Sebring, recast as Chrysler 200, was up 10% to 11,997.
Ram pickup was up 19%, to 25,515.
With sales up 35% to 16,428, the Dodge Caravan jumped to second place among Chrysler’s most popular models.
Jeep Wrangler was up 3% to 13,293, and Grand Cherokee was up 13% to 12,848.
Dodge sold 3045 Darts last month, for 4019 so far.
Fiat 500 sales are up 34% to 4150.

5. American Honda: 131,321, up 59.5%.

Accord was up 89%, to 34,848.
Civic sales rose 106%, to 24,897.
New model propelled CR-V sales to a 44.1% increase, to 23,877.
Acura accounted for 15,646, up 72.8%.
The Acura TL, one of only two midsize premium sedans to earn a “good” rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s new offset test, was up 33.2%, to 3201.
The TSX, which earned an IIHS “mediocre,” was off 7.1%, to 2103. Of those, 370 were wagons.
MDX was up 77.5%, to 5549.
Acura sold 1733 new ILX models.

6. Nissan North America: 98,515, up 7.6%.

Altima was up 12.5%, to 25,889.
Sentra was up 31.8%, to 10,623.
Titan was off 19% to 1907.
Rogue was up 10.1%, to 12,626.
Leaf was off 49.7%, to 685.
Infiniti was up 23.6%, to 11,155.
Infiniti G sedan was up 20.1%, to 5123, and G coupe was off 11.2%, to 1138.

7. Hyundai: 61,099, up 4%

Sonata slid 5.1%, to 19,624. Blame re-supply of Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Nissan Altima?
The more recently updated, and more heavily advertised Elantra was up, however, by 19.5%, to 17,989.
Tucson was up 29.4%, to 5376.

8. Kia: 50,028, up 21.5%.

Optima was up 126.5%, to 13,949. It breached the 100k mark in August, with 100,424 sold year-to-date.
Sorento was off 22.4% to 10,529.
Soul was up 48% to 10,191.

9. Volkswagen of America: 41,011, up 62.5%.

Passat was up 3113.4%, to 10,090. VW says 25.4% were TDIs, but that it could sell 30% diesel if it had the supply of European-built engines.
Jetta was VW’s bestseller, up 6.1%, to 13,377.
VW sold 3451 Beetles.
Tiguan had a healthy increase of 36.9%, but to just 2746 units.

10. Subaru of America: 28,293, up 35.8%.

Outback broke the 10k mark, at 11,285, up 49%, as Subaru surged past Mercedes and BMW and Outback outsold Passat by 1195.
Forester was next, at 6956, up 8.2%.
Subaru sold 623 BRZs.

11. Mercedes-Benz USA: 23,439, up 13.1%.

Mercedes-Benz, the brand, was up 11.3%, to 20,557.
C-Class led cars, up 37.9%, to 6519. Apparently, its poor rating in the new IIHS test didn’t affect sales.
E-Class was next, at 4515, off 19.8%.
GLK was its bestselling SUV, up 43.6%, to 2775.
M-Class was up 2.4%, to 2243.
Smart was up 85.9%, to 753.

12. BMW Group: 22,553, off 5.7%.

After last-month’s scandal, when re-sold demo BMWs were counted, the brand slipped 19.1%, to 16,835. BMW USA blamed tight supply of popular models, and buyers waiting for the just-released X1 and 3 Series AWD.
The new 3 Series’ sales plummeted 29.3%, to 6206.
All BMW SUVs were up, while all BMW cars except 6 Series fell.
The 6 Series was up 118.8%, to 453.
BMW sold 576 X1s.
Mini brand was up 83.9%, to 5718.

13. Mazda North America: 22,234, off 1.8%.

Mazda3 broke the 10k barrier, at 11,120, up 18%.
CX-9 was off 16.8%, to 2252.
CX-5 sales totaled 4665. CX-7 was off 95.1%, to 204.
Miata was off 6.7%, to 560.

14. Audi: 11,527, up 13%.

A4, another car that did poorly in the new IIHS test, was up 21.5%, to 3187.
Q5 was off 12.8%, to 2007.
A5 was up 26.9%, to 1677, and A6 was up 58.6%, to 1569.

15. Volvo: 6323, up 21.2%.

S60, the other model beside Acura TL to earn an IIHS “good” rating for the new test, was up 32%, to 2038.

16. Jaguar/Land Rover: 4756, up 31%.

Passed Mitsubishi for 16^th.
Land Rover sales were up 33%, to 3727.
Jaguar was up 27%, to 1029.

17. Mitsubishi: 4249, off 46.8%.

Boilerplate: Mitsubishi has gone from a niche brand to a nichier brand, scuppering its Galant and Eclipse to concentrate on the c-segment and electrics. Bestseller is Normal, Illinois-built Outlander Sport.
Mazda sold more CX-5s.

18. Porsche: 3026, up 39%.