Auto Sales Tell the Story Once Again

For the month of June and the second quarter of this year, the sales results for the automotive market were a bit of a mixed bag.

There continues to be a high demand for pickup trucks and SUVs along with the crossover models that sell at an exceptional rate. For the past several years, these smaller SUVs have been impressive and have been sold at a rate that makes it so that these vehicles lead the market. While these models continue to grow, passenger car sales continue to fall at a rate that seems to support the recent movement of domestic automotive brands.

The Growth is Cooling Off

If you remember back a few years it was easy to see and was predicted, that the sales in the US would cool off. Several years of growth is often followed by a few years of slower sales, and the different automakers have prepared for this to take place with lineups that are easier to understand and give us more of the vehicles that we already want to experience when it’s time for a drive. Let’s take a look at a few of the brands and how they performed>

FCA

The sales for FCA rose 1.9 percent to 206,083 vehicles in June which was driven by 45 percent of these sales coming from Ram trucks. For the first half of 2019, Ram sold 40,000 more trucks than Chevrolet. Typically, the Chevy Silverado is second in sales, but the Ram has surpassed it and is only bested in sales by the Ford F-Series trucks.

GM

The second quarter of sales for GM showed a drop of 1.5 percent with strong SUV sales that was offset by a poor performance by the pickup truck segment. The sales of trucks by GM is expected to increase in the third quarter when the most popular and affordable versions of the Silverado will show up in dealers.

Foreign Brands

Hyundai experienced an increase in sales of 1.5 percent to 64,202 models for June and a 36 percent increase in the sales of the Santa Fe. Kia sold 56,801 models in June which was an increase of four percent with the Optima and Telluride leading the way. Toyota reported totals of 202,352 which was a decrease of 3.5 percent with the new RAV4 being the bright spot with an increase of more than eight percent compared to the year before.

A Level Ground Needs to be Reached

With the massive number of changes that are taking place in several of the brands on the market, the market should level off in the near future. Sales may continue to decrease compared to 2017 and 2018, which were both record years for some brands and classes. When the numbers do level off, we will get to see what we’re left with when it’s time for the drive that we will enjoy on the roads in the future. These results tell the story of the beginning of a transition to fewer vehicles on the road.