US: Recovering Toyota's May sales expected to surge

Detroit Free Press - When automakers report May sales Friday, Toyota is expected to recapture more of the sales it lost last year. As Toyota regains ground, it could even top Ford in May for second-place in U.S. sales, behind General Motors.

After being crippled last year by an earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Toyota is roaring back with new models, a healthy level of inventory and aggressive sales campaigns.

While industry forecasters are expecting pent-up demand and improving consumer confidence to boost industry sales by 30% or more from a year ago, Toyota's sales could increase by nearly 90%, according to Edmunds.com and TrueCar.com, which monitor industry sales separately.

"You will probably see Toyota report numbers that will shock everyone," said Bob Page, owner of Page Toyota in Southfield. "We probably are going be up about 70-75% for the month."

It should be a good month for all automakers. May sales are expected to increase 42.2% for Chrysler, 16.3% for Ford and 11.4% for GM, while sales could increase 49.7% at Honda and 28.1% at Nissan, according to Edmunds.com.

GM's numbers won't look as strong, in part, because it benefited from the Japanese automakers' weakness last May.

"Everyone is expecting the Japanese to show large year-over-year increases," GM spokesman Jim Cain said.

Last May, the Chevrolet Cruze compact car was the No. 1 selling compact car, outselling the Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus and Honda Civic.

The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami killed thousands and shut down auto plants for weeks. Asian automakers were forced to cut incentives to preserve inventory throughout the spring and summer.

The inventory shortages, along with gas prices that were approaching $4 per gallon a year ago, nearly derailed the automotive industry's recovery.

Now, Toyota is in the middle of an annual sales blitz that includes 0% financing on many models and special lease rates.

Japan's largest automaker is also willing to finance customers with credit scores as low as 500, Page said, with the understanding that many people who otherwise have strong credit histories lost their jobs or homes during the recession.

"Clearly, Toyota is trying very hard," Page said. "They are being very aggressive."