Detroit's Big Three off to fast sales start in 2013

Joseph Szczesny , The Detroit Bureau ? ? ? 6 hrs.

Anyone wondering whether the U.S. auto market could maintain the fast pace that helped deliver an unexpectedly strong close to 2012 needn?t worry.? The New Year is off to a fast and promising start based on the first sales numbers to come in for January.

Notably, Detroit?s Big Three makers all posted double-digit gains ? good news for the Motor City considering the two largest domestic brands each lost market share last year.

Chrysler Group LLC reported a 16% increase in U.S. sales in in January as the automaker continued to gain sales, while Ford Motor Co.s January U.S. sales grew 22% year-over-year, and GM jumped 22%. All three makers stressed that their higher-profit retail sales grew at an even faster pace as they continued to shift emphasis away from generally lower-profit fleet markets.

Foreign-owned makers also appear to have had a good month, analysts expecting many to report double-digit gains, as well.? While most are still crunching their numbers, the Toyota brand was up 26.6% for the month, prompting Bill Fay, general manager of the Japanese maker?s mainstream brand to declare, "The sales pace we saw in the fourth quarter of last year rolled into January, exceeding our expectations for the industry.??

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Audi missed that double-digit mark with a more modest 7.5% year-over-year increase, though January was still the German brand?s 25th consecutive month of record sales.

The maker generated particularly strong numbers for a wide range of models such as the recently redesigned Escape crossover and the F-Series pickup, the latter clearly benefiting from an upturn in U.S. housing.As for the Detroit makers, ?Our investment in fuel-efficient new vehicles ? including EcoBoost engines and hybrid technology ? continues to pay off,? declared Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. ?

Sales of all-new Ford Fusion totaled 22,399 vehicles in January, a 65% increase versus a year ago and Fusion?s best January sales ever ? breaking its January 2011 sales record by 56%. In addition, Ford?s small car sales were up 29% in January versus a year ago, with 23,171 Fiesta, Focus and C-MAX hybrid models sold, marking Ford?s best January small car sales since 2000.?

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?It?s been a good week for the Chrysler Group. On Wednesday we announced full year 2012 profits of $1.7 billion and followed that today with our January sales, up 16%, marking our 34th-consecutive month of year-over-year sales growth,? said Reid Bigland, Head of U.S. Sales.

Indeed, it has been a good month for Chrysler which won North American Truck of the Year honors for its 2013 Ram 1500 pickup ? which won similar kudos from influential Motor Trend magazine.? The maker also received praise for a number of new products revealed at January?s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

But perhaps one of the best bits of news for Chrysler was that the Dodge Dart had its best month since its launch last June. The compact sedan has been struggling, acknowledged Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, forcing the maker to recently reduce production at a Michigan engine plant supplying the Dart assembly line in Belvedere, Illinois.?

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The Chrysler, Dodge, Ram Truck and FIAT brands each posted year-over-year sales gains in January compared with the same month last year. The Dodge brand?s 37% increase was the largest sales gain of any Chrysler Group brand in January. Chrysler Group extended its streak in January to 34-consecutive months of year-over-year sales gains.

Nonetheless, ?The year is off to a very good start for General Motors,? said Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations. ?There?s a sense of optimism among our dealers that only comes when you pair a growing economy with great new products. We started to see the benefits in 2012 with vehicles like the Chevrolet Sonic, Cadillac ATS and Buick Verano. Now in 2013, we?re entering the sweet spot of our product plan in a growing economy,? he said.As for GM, it announced that it sold 194,699 vehicles in the United States in January, up 16% compared with a year ago. Retail sales were up 24% while fleet sales were down 2%. Whether that will be enough to help reverse last year?s market share decline remains to seen, however, as some of the key foreign-owned brands have yet to report their January sales numbers.

The analysts are predicting U.S. vehicle and light truck sales will come in about 15% higher than in January 2012. That would put sales on track for a seasonally adjusted annual rate, or SAAR, of 15.3 million new vehicles.

If the predictions hold up, it would be the best January in five years, further evidence that the industry is back on its feet after the brutal beating it took during the financial crisis.

?Auto makers are kicking off the year strong, staying true to disciplined incentive spending as many curtailed their spending in January as the current lineup of products speak for themselves,? said Kirsten Andersson, an analyst at TrueCar.com.

Whether the industry can maintain this pace is yet to be seen. The fact that Wall Street?s Dow-Jones Industrial Average broke the psychologically important 14,000 mark certainly could add momentum. So could the recent indicators of a long-awaited upturn in the U.S. housing market.?

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Last year reached 14.5 million sales thanks to a final holiday burst. And AutoPacific analyst Ed Kim predicts 2013 will be ?a healthy, profitable year for manufacturers.? The consulting firm is predicting the year will reach the 15.1 million mark. But some industry experts and insiders, including GM CEO Dan Akerson, have suggested the market could nudge as high as 15.5 million if the overall economy continues to rebound.

Not everything was rosy during January, however. TrueCar is reporting that the average transaction price ? the actual cost for a typically new car buyer ? dipped by $416 in January compared to the record set in December 2012. But the ATP was still up from January 2012 by $300, to $$30,812. And incentives declined an average 12% last month, as well, the tracking firm says.One of the factors that will likely contribute to strong demand through the year is that a growing number of buyers will be returning vehicles as their leases come to an end in 2013, according to an analysis by Edmunds.com. Leasing took a sharp tumble during the depths of the recession but has begun a sharp rebound.

Paul A. Eisenstein contributed to this report.

Copyright 2013 The Detroit Bureau

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/chrysler-posts-highest-january-sales-five-years-1B8209091

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