General Motors, as well as other automakers, report October U.S. sales, amid concerns about waning demand, a potentially maxed-out auto-loan market and incentives' impacts on profits. However, Ford Motor will not be among them, as the automaker said that it will release results later this week due to a fire at its Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters that knocked out power to data systems.
General Motors, meanwhile, was expected to report October sales of 246,512 autos, down 6.3% year over year. U.S. sales for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles are seen falling 10.6% to 178,245. Monthly sales for Volkswagen, which is still trying to recover from a massive emissions-cheating scandal, are seen dropping 17.6% to 39,645 units sold. The figures include results for Audi. Toyota was seen selling 189,995 vehicles in the U.S., down 6.9%. Honda was expected to report U.S. sales of 125,162 automobiles, down 4.9%. Ford was expected to weigh on industry sales with a 10.9% drop to 189,970 autos sold in October.
The auto-information service said the industry's seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17.8 million vehicles "would tie for the highest monthly sales rate of 2016. Still, if U.S. auto sales are falling, that will weigh on production. The auto industry is slowly turning from a tailwind to a headwind for U.S. manufacturing.
