Major automakers have posted their sales results for this September, and although we had high hopes on the discounts offered by General Motors and Ford Motor. Co, nothing saved the market from crashing down. The total industry sales were at 1.44 million vehicles, which is down 0.5% for a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 17.76 million from 18.05 million in September 2015.
The top-seller in the United States- GM, posted a 0.6%decline. Ford reported an 8% drop, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was down 1%. Shares of the three Detroit automakers rose, led by GM with a 0.8 percent gain. Sales of Toyota Motor Corp. grew 1.5%, Honda Motor Co. had a decline of 0.1%, and Nissan Motor Co. showed a 5% rise. The demand for pickup trucks remained strong in part because of low gasoline prices, despite the September dip for the biggest sellers. September 2015 sales had been extremely strong, at an annualized rate of 18 million vehicles. Ford revealed that September was the best month in 2016 for its F-Series pickup truck, sales were still down 3 percent from a year earlier. GM's pickup sales fell 15.5 percent for its Chevrolet Silverado and 8.5 percent for its GMC Sierra. Fiat Chrysler's Ram 1500 pickup truck showed a sales increase of 29%.
Most analysts forecast a decrease in 2016 from last year's record sales of nearly 17.5 million vehicles. The fourth quarter of 2015 was strong, so the next several months will present difficult comparisons.
