Total Industry

December - Month
Car: 654,601 vs. 583,960, up 8 percent
Truck: 885,337 vs. 845,900, up 1 percent
Big Three vehicle: 896,286 vs. 893,542, down 3 percent
Asian vehicle: 531,399 vs. 436,503, up 17 percent
European vehicle: 112,253 vs. 99,815, up 8 percent
Total vehicle: 1,539,938 vs. 1,429,860, up 4 percent

Year
Car: 7,536,309 vs. 7,635,018, down 2 percent
Truck: 9,343,263 vs. 9,005,244, up 3 percent
Big Three vehicle: 9,922,043 vs. 10,041,990, down 2 percent

Asian vehicle: 5,815,944 vs. 5,409,138, up 7 percent
European vehicle: 1,141,585 vs. 1,189,134, down 4 percent
Total vehicle: 16,879,572 vs. 16,640,262 , up 1 percent

General Motors
December - Month

Car: 159,873 vs. 165,988, down 7 percent
Truck: 265,430 vs. 273,352, down 6 percent
Vehicle: 425,303 vs. 439,340, down 7 percent

Year
Car: 1,847,040 vs. 1,912,768, down 4 percent
Truck: 2,770,260 vs. 2,754,100, up less than 1 percent
Vehicle: 4,617,300 vs. 4,666,868, down 1 percent

Ford
December - Month
Car: 73,653 vs. 70,303, up 1 percent
Truck: 198,050 vs. 201,068, down 5 percent
Vehicle: 271,703 vs. 271,371, down 4 percent

Year
Car: 888,633 vs. 1,033,092, down 14 percent
Truck: 2,210,086 vs. 2,214,579, down 1 percent
Vehicle: 3,098,719 vs. 3,247,671, down 5 percent

DaimlerChrysler
December - Month
Car: 39,125 vs. 29,880, up 26 percent
Truck: 160,155 vs. 152,951, up 1 percent
Vehicle: 199,280 vs. 182,831, up 5 percent

Year
Car: 474,119 vs. 456,676 , up 3 percent
Truck: 1,731,905 vs. 1,670,775 , up 3 percent
Vehicle: 2,206,024 vs. 2,127,451 , up 3 percent

Toyota
December - Month

Car: 96,502 vs. 72,112, up 29 percent
Truck: 91,430 vs. 81,305, up 8 percent
Vehicle: 187,932 vs. 153,417, up 18 percent

Year
Car: 1,101,221 vs. 995,986, up 10 percent
Truck: 958,828 vs. 870,327, up 10 percent
Vehicle: 2,060,049 vs. 1,866,313, up 10 percent

Nissan

December - Month

Car: 44,629 vs. 37,150, up 16 percent
Truck: 47,639 vs. 29,820, up 54 percent
Vehicle: 92,268 vs. 66,970, up 33 percent

Year
Car: 536,756 vs. 505,392, up 6 percent
Truck: 449,232 vs. 289,089 , up 55 percent
Vehicle: 985,988 vs. 794,481, up 24 percent

 

Source please. This is at odds with Fords own press release.

http://media.ford.com/pdf/Dec2004sales.pdf

 

Yeh this doesnt jive at all with Fords information. Check out that link.

 

After a considerable amount of surfing, I could not duplicate anything that looked like these numbers…source would be nice

 

The source is The Associated Press. I was doing some stock analysis today and ran across the information.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/tic...104&ID=4170784

 

Trucks:

Nissan +55%, Toyota +10%, Ford -1%. I can not belive it: with redesigned F150 and SD?!

 

Thank you for posting the link!~

 

So apparentely this does not necessarily contradict the assertion that F-series is still the number one selling pickup truck in the US, since total numbers include GM's Savanna and Safari as well as Ford's E-series. Excursion, Expedition, and Yukon, Suburban, Avalanch sales are also included. Ranger and Colorado sales as well.
No problems including all these as trucks for overall sales, however I have a bit of a problem with including mini vans. They arent cars, but they arent trucks either. Their actually more like a car than a truck to me. I wonder how many of Ford's and GM's numbers consist of mini vans. Disclude them and GM may take an even larger lead in overall sales, or Ford closes the gap.

 

Bottom line, American companies don't seem to be able to compete with Asia in cars, and trucks may be headed the same way. But, look at the cars Ford introduced this year, the 500 and the Freestyle (yawn)! Underpowered, and I'm sure the resale and perceived reliability will both be lower than Accords, Camrys, or Siennas. They did a fine job with the Mustang, but that's not the bread and butter line it was in the 1960's. It's really too bad, but I think before long all cars will be built overseas, with only trucks produced by the Americans.

 

I truely find statments like this very short sighted. Honda and Toyota when first introduced where very poor cars. It took many years for then to get where there got. Notice I said where. There quality is dropping not get better. Most cars are built here now. Blame it on us but today I think its all perception and not reality.

Have you personnally driven the 500. I have and think its a fine car and in many ways is light years ahead of anything offered by Honda or Toyota and I have owned both. Underpowered, yes if you want a sports car but for a familiy sedan it fine. It has more interior room than any car on the market other than a limo and the trunk is huge. AWD is a plus. I do think the Freestyle is a yawner though.

If I was in the market for a car Toyota and Honda are not even in the running anymore. The 500 or the 300M would be my choices. Not because there are american but because there are better cars.

 

Terry- Your point is well taken, Toyota and Honda were poor cars, and look what they have done! The American companies let them take a large chunk of the car market away in the 1970's, and the Japanese companies never looked back. And the trend continues today, except now we have Korean cars and Japanese full size pickups. If Ford wants to compete in the 4 door family sedan segment, they don't need evolution, they need revolution, like the Taurus. The 500 is not a revolution, even if it is tall. And, I really don't need to drive one to be sure it's underpowered, and I hate front wheel drive. That's one reason why I buy trucks, rear wheel drive and a V8. I think the domestic makers need to look for niches were the Japanese aren't. For example, in the late 1970's, 2 door hardtops, like the Cordoba, Cutless, and Monte Carlo were the rage. Is there no market for a nicely styled two door car that can hold 4-5 comfortably, with rear wheel drive and a V8? Dodge is comming out with the Charger, but it's a 4 door, again directly competing with the Japanese. Don't hit them where they are, hit them where they aren't.

 

The way I look at it is Ford is selling 2.2 million trucks a year. It is alot easier for Nissan to improve on 450,000 and Toyota to improve on there 958,000. How many more truck can Ford sell a year? Cars are a different story.

 

Now we're getting somewhere. GM's poor passenger car showing resulted from:
1) losing the Oldsmobile brand (-103,000 units)
2) Weakness in the Buick line (-14%. Where the heck did the Oldsmobile business go?)
3) A poor showing by Saturn (-35%)

Chevy and Pontiac were the bright spots (290K Impalas! Go figure)

On the Ford side of the ledger:

1) the Taurus/500 transition is temporarily affecting sales numbers.
2) Ditto the Mustang rollout
3) Loss of the Escort

I wouldn't read too much into those numbers, since the product line is in transition. But, looking at the imprt numbers, there's a clear message here- Toyota, Honda, and a few others are shellacking the domestics in market share.

Ford Trucks:

1) Weakness in two key product lines, Explorer (-9%), Expedition (-12%). The Excursion's not a big volume line, no the numbers have little impact. Since parallel GM models experienced similiar declines, we have to assume some of that business went to Asian and European brands.

2) Ranger down 25.2%. With GM logging 145K Colorado/Canyon sales, we have to assume some of that business went towards the General. I wonder how much went to the F-series? Imports?

F-Series and the Escape are bright spots here. The Escape is a sleeper product- you don't think much about them until you look at your sales figures.

GM figures

Ford figures

 

I really believe if Ford gets something to compete with the suburban maybe a lengthened expedition especially if it has a diesel. GMs dominance there might end. Since they have no diesel suburban. The excursion with the diesel has been a big seller for Ford. The gas models havent been. Mydealer whon is a big Ford dealer cant keep the 6.0s excursions in stock. They sell pretty easily. The excursion is just maybe to big for most people. It sure beats the interior room off a suburban though. Like I said if Ford makes something to compete they will sell like hotcakes.

 

Sad the Excursion is gone, I too hope they replace it with something.