With sales totaling nearly 1.2 million light vehicles for the month, September saw a 13% gain, giving the auto industry its highest selling month since March 2008. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate rose to 14.9 million, a higher amount than the 14.6 million SAAR seen during August 2009’s cash-for-clunkers.
At 1,188,899, the total number of auto sales last month was almost 100,000 more than analysts had predicted.
Of the major players, Toyota Motor Sales surpassed increases by Volkswagen Group and American Honda to see a 42% gain. Toyota’s 144,781 sales brought the manufacturer closer to No. 2 brand Chevrolet, which sold only 5,020 more vehicles in September. This upswing also brought Toyota closer to Ford; sales of Toyota, Lexus, and Scion totaled 171,910 units, just 2,544 units behind Ford and Lincoln combined.
Light trucks sales trickled last month, rising 4% to 582,102 sales from 561,423 last year, while car sales shot up 23% to 606,797 units from 492,347 in the same period.
The Top 10 U.S. brands also saw a shakeup in September, with Honda bypassing Nissan to take the No. 4 slot behind Ford, Chevy, and Toyota. Kia overtook Dodge for No. 7, while VW rose to No. 10, taking GMC out of the picture for the month and year to date.
I was an employee of the HSBC Auto Finance division and I would predict “never”. The Auto Division closed in August of 2008. The employees were told the bank could get better returns in emerging markets. It is a London based bank. I am curious what returns they produced during the last year. The San Diego and Lewisville offices were closed at that time. Your article says the acquisition include’s HSBC’s loan servicing facilities and most of the 700 employees at the two locations. You may need to re-check this information. Unless it was all a big conspiracy to get rid of me and they are secretly in business.