Hyundai, Honda lead Asian automakers' U.S. October sales gains

Hyundai Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. led U.S. sales gains for Asian carmakers as higher retail demand made October the best month for deliveries in more than a year. Toyota Motor Corp. reported a decline.

Honda and Nissan both had 16 percent increases for the month, while Seoul-based Hyundai reported a 38 percent gain. Toyota’s sales fell 4.4 percent as demand shifted to light trucks from cars, such as its Camry and Corolla models, said Bob Carter, the company’s U.S. group vice president.

“Consumers who have a job are feeling a little bit better and not fearing every Friday anymore,” said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at researcher IHS Automotive in Lexington, Massachusetts. “They feel like the worst is over and they’re starting to trickle back into showrooms.”

Industrywide light-vehicle sales rose to a 12.3 million annual rate in October, researcher Autodata Corp. said yesterday. That’s the fastest since the U.S. government’s “cash for clunkers” incentive program lifted the pace to 14.2 million in August 2009. The average of nine analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for the rate to reach 11.9 million last month.

Japanese and South Korean brands raised sales a combined 12 percent, less than the industry’s 13 percent increase, according to Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based Autodata. Sales to individual retail buyers, rather than business and commercial fleets, were notably stronger last month, Toyota’s Carter said.

“Most of the industry growth has been on the fleet side of the business,” Carter said on a conference call yesterday. “This is the first month that we’ve seen retail perform better than fleet.”

Fleet Sales

Sales to fleets were at least 21 percent of U.S. volume through September, according to industry forecaster J.D. Power & Associates. J.D. Power hasn’t yet calculated the fleet sales rate through October, said John Tews, a company spokesman.

U.S. automakers General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC have been the main beneficiaries of fleet demand this year. GM’s sales last month rose 3.5 percent, Ford’s grew 15 percent and Chrysler had a 37 percent increase.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, sold 145,474 Toyota, Lexus and Scion brand vehicles last month, down from 152,165 a year earlier. Gains were strongest for models including Highlander, 4Runner and FJ Cruiser sport-utility vehicles, while Yaris, Camry and Corolla cars and Prius hybrids all posted declines.

Lexus expanded its lead in U.S. luxury auto sales over Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s BMW brand. Lexus sales grew 8.1 percent to 21,091 vehicles, aided by increased incentives.

Toyota City, Japan-based Toyota’s market share dropped 2.9 percentage points from a year ago to 15.3 percent, according to Autodata.

Honda, Nissan

Honda, based in Tokyo, boosted deliveries of Honda and Acura brand autos to 98,811 units from 85,502. Gains came from the new Odyssey minivan, sales of which rose 47 percent from a year ago. The company is also being helped by increased use of low-cost leases, said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends for Santa Monica, California-based TrueCar.com.

“Honda’s got a good lineup for current market conditions and has some very attractive lease deals,” Toprak said. “They have also been more aggressive on overall incentives.”

The company’s market share was 10.4 percent last month, up 0.2 percentage point from a year ago, according to Autodata.

Nissan said it sold 69,773 Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, up from 60,115 a year ago. The Yokohama, Japan-based company boosted sales of Altima sedans 28 percent and benefited from the addition of the compact Juke crossover vehicle.

Nissan Forecast

Industry sales will likely end up at about 12 million units this year, lower than Nissan’s initial expectation of about 12.2 million, Al Castignetti, vice president of North American sales for Nissan, said in an interview

“We’re probably going to stay at the same pace, unless Congress does something to ease the minds of the consumer” in the year’s final months, Castignetti said.

Hyundai, South Korea’s largest automaker, on Nov. 2 reported a 38 percent sales increase, and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. had a 39 percent gain.