By the Numbers: September 2007
by John Neff on Oct 2nd 2007 at 4:57PM 
Analysts who feared the worst for September 2007 car sales were wrong. It wasn't that bad at all. General Motors pulled out a 3.8% increase in sales, for Pete's sake! Fellow domestics Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Company, however, did not fare as well. Chrysler LLC sales went down only 1.5% last month thanks to the saving graces of the Jeep Wrangler, as well as the mere presence of new models like the Dodge Nitro and Avenger. FoMoCo, however, is shrinking fast. The Blue Oval sold at a 21% slower rate this September than last. Blame the car division, which in raw numbers dropped 45.1% in sales. Of course, those are mostly lost fleet sales, and Ford shrinking in size is a good thing once it finds an equilibrium that produces profits.
In other big news, Toyota Motor Co.'s sales rate actually fell last month, though only by 0.6%. Meanwhile, cross island rivals Honda (13.8%) and Nissan (11.0%) both saw appreciable gains for their North American divisions.
The individual break down by brand is below, so check them out. Remember, there were only 25 selling days in September 2007, versus 26 selling days in September 2006. Thus, our percentages reflect the change in the Daily Average Sales rate rather than the change in raw number of units sold.
Biggest Winner
MINI
41.4% at 4,031 (09/06: 2,964)Biggest Loser
HUMMER
–21.6% at 5,080 (09/06: 6,739)Biggest Loser (Honorable Mention)
Ford
–21% at 155,037 (09/06: 204,070)BRANDS
Acura
–8.4% at 14,369 (09/06: 16,323)Audi
4.2% at 8,021 (09/06: 8,004)BMW
6.9% at 20,901 (09/06: 20,339)Buick
–5.1% at 17,754 (09/06: 19,463)Cadillac
4.9% at 20,398 (09/06: 20,217)Chevrolet
6.1% at 194,637 (09/06: 190,825)Chrysler
–14.8% at 38,668 (09/06: 47,211)Dodge
9% at 83,671 (09/06: 79,784)Ford
–21% at 155,037 (09/06: 204,070)GMC
18.9% at 44,754 (09/06: 39,141)Honda
17.5% at 112,831 (09/06: 99,903)HUMMER
–21.6% at 5,080 (09/06: 6,739)Hyundai
3.5% at 33,214 (09/06: 33,384)Infiniti
2.7% at 10,250 (09/06: 10,378)Jaguar
–4.7% at 1,061 (09/06: 1,158)Jeep
–7.0% at 37,460 (09/06: 41,893)Land Rover
25.6% at 4,190 (09/06: 3,469)Lexus
1.6% at 25,114 (09/06: 25,700)Lincoln
38% at 9,764 (09/06: 7,362)Mazda
28.8% at 25,098 (09/06: 20,261)Mercedes
18.0% at 22,549 (09/06: 19,873)Mercury
–9.6% at 11,403 (09/06: 13,117)MINI
41.4% at 4,031 (09/06: 2,964)Mitsubishi
22.3% at 12,102 (09/06: 10,287)Nissan
12.0% at 84,019 (09/06: 77,962)Pontiac
–11.5% at 31,817 (09/06: 37,376)Porsche
24.2% at 2,641 (09/06: 2,211)Saab
–17.9% at 2,424 (09/06: 3,069)Saturn
7.2% at 20,776 (09/06: 20,153)Subaru
6.1% at 16,457 (09/06: 16,128)Suzuki
0.2% at 7,653 (09/06: 7,940)Toyota
–0.9% at 187,929 (09/06: 197,250)Volkswagen
–2.2% at 18,891 (09/06: 20,082)Volvo
–9.6% at 8,408 (09/06: 9,672)NOT YET REPORTING
Kia
COMPANIES
BMW Group
11.3% at 24,932 (09/06: 23,303)Chrysler LLC
–1.5% at 159,799 (09/06: 168,888)Ford Motor Co
–17.3% at 189,863 (09/06: 238,848)General Motors
3.8% at 337,640 (09/06: 338,380)Honda America
13.8% at 127,200 (09/06: 116,226)Nissan North America
11.0% at 94,269 (09/06: 88,340)Toyota Motor Co.
–0.6% at 213,043 (09/06: 222,950)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Logan Irons 5:00PM (10/02/2007)
Finally! I was getting worried!
Reply
Tim 9:14PM (10/02/2007)
GO HUmmer.
A Ford Headoffice worker 5:05PM (10/02/2007)
Awhile back I said by renaming the Ford Fivehundred to Taurus it will make no difference in sales.
I have been right. Everymonth I have come here to Autoblog and said the Taurus is lagging in sales
yet I always get lambasted with claims like "It just got released not all dealers have it yet" or "I havent
seen any marketing for it wait till people find out about it". The truth is the Taurus/500 is based off the
1998 Volvo platform and it is seriously lacking. Ford thinks people are dumb and wants to continuelly
shove this car down peoples throats yet no one is buying it. Renaming it did nothing. Giving it a great
engine but then adding rice tail lights and a grill off of the 1986 Taurus took it a step back.
Please Ford as a fan of your heritage and a person that wants to see you succeed redesign this car
with zero parts carried over. Of course you will not. I know that.
The new Taurus has been a disaster since Launching in April. Everymonth add the Taurus sales to the
dismal sales of the left over Fivehundred and you will still get a number LESS than last years Fivehundred
sales. WOW! Ford said they expected to sell 15,000-20,000 Taurus a month. Instead they are selling 50%
less than fivehundred sales of last year. On average they move 3,000 Taurus a month. Thats 10 a day. Since
Ford has 4600 dealers, that 0.6 Taurus per dealer per month. Pathetic.
Please compare for yourself:
May Ford Sales
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2007/06/01/050237.html
June Ford Sales
http://media.ford.com/pdf/June07_sales.pdf
July Ford Sales
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=PR&symbol=F&storyID=196385+01-Aug-2007+PRN&type=qcna
August Ford Sales
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-04-2007/0004655999&EDATE=
September Ford Sales
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071002/cltu103.html?.v=41
Look the Taurus is a good car. I have no problems with it. But putting a lipstick on a pig is still a pig.
This just shows how Ford has no clue nor does Mullaly. And mullaly has made 36 million since October last
year when he got hired. 19 million signing bonus, 7 million 2006 year end bonus, and 10 million since January. He was a disaster at Boeing.
Under his leadership from 1995-2006, Boeing Marketshare went from 73% to 44% even with taking over Mcdonald Douglass.
Airbus went from 16% to 54%. Under his watch 717, 747, 757, MD-11 and 767 all floundered because of lack of investement and redesign.
787 was launched by stonecipher and not mullaly and 777 launched in 1990. The guy is over rated and Boeing had no problems letting him go.
Fields, Pipas, and Mullaly will do nothing for Ford. Count on it.
Reply
Cecil 5:34PM (10/02/2007)
I had heard the new Ford Taurus was a bust but didn't know this bad.
Daniel 5:37PM (10/02/2007)
Ford should have kept the 3.0 engine in the new Taurus. Give people a choice between the 3.0 and the 3.5. They could have sold more.
Im pissed at Honda too. Should have kept the 3.0 as well. I dont want to go from 2.4 to the monster 3.5 in the new Accord.
fordman 5:43PM (10/02/2007)
Sorry Headoffice worker.
As soon as I read the first few lines of your writeup I gave you a negative vote. But now that I have read the whole thing I wish I hadn't.
All your points are valid and correct.
BirdmanSTX 5:56PM (10/02/2007)
3000 vehicles a month averages to 100 a day, not 10.
Austin 6:02PM (10/02/2007)
Do you know third grade math, 3000 divided by 30 days in a month is 100 NOT 10. And Alan did not sign off on the Taurus design. The only cars that he has so far would be one's that have not been released like the next F-150, Explorer, and Lincoln crossover. So don't count him short, he did get the financing that ford needed.
A Ford Headoffice worker 6:07PM (10/02/2007)
Ok so I calculated wrong. 3000 for 4600 dealers is still .6 Taurus per dealer per month. So My math is correct. I typed quickly.
The Taurus is seriously underachieving and renaming it has done nothing. It was a HUGE publicity stunt and everyone fell for it.
Greek Boy 6:32PM (10/02/2007)
NICE MATH.....you twit.
Crossovers are WAY up, and so is Lincoln. Ford sales are mostly down because of the lack of fleet sales, and certainly the lack of flooding them with Taurus sales.
Nice selectice memory about AM too. Yeah, he is not perfect, soooo. He is making all the right moves so far. Your rant about the Taurus name is humerous. Nobody expected a name change alone to help sales, that's why Ford made it the best/safest family car value on the market. Can you name a better value? Did'nt think so.
All Ford needs is their future products to showroom ASAP and they will be fine. Especially when their small cars hit the dealers.
Laghing at you 6:48PM (10/02/2007)
Hey Geek Boy maybe you and Austin need to hook up and drive into the sunset in your Ford.
For the rest of us we dont live in an illusion. Taurus is a great car but not the best and sales show it. And Mullaly is very very over rated and has done nothing. Tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of his leadership. All the decisions he has made could have been made by anyone of us. He lacks vision and just about everything else.
blogged to death 12:11AM (10/03/2007)
Yowza - Austin there's some nice groups you can join to share your valid feelings. It's called the Keep ameriKan Krap group that you should fit right into. There numbers are a dwindlin' but you can help stem that tide.
So, stop hatin' on other cultures and stop saying racial slurs.
Austin 5:20PM (10/03/2007)
I was not saying anything racial, it is a fact that the Japs in WWII, killed thousands of POWs including Americans, British, Australians, and Chinese by means of torturing, beheading, beating, not giving them food and mediine, ad working them to death. The japanese gov. has not paid a penny in repeations to the surviving POWs and the families of the ones they killed. It is a fact that all their car companies built for the war effort (some changed their names) and I say you should not by one of their cars for that.
YouFaceTheTick 5:12PM (10/02/2007)
Go Mini. Sweet...this pretty much guarantees my 07 Cooper should hold its value. Hot damn...
Reply
Mark 5:15PM (10/02/2007)
It won't be long before Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge outsell Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, especially with the new minivans, Jeep Liberty, and Dodge Journey coming out.
Reply
Austin 6:27PM (10/02/2007)
Ford outsold them by 70,000 cars. That would take years for them to make up. And the Vans will most likely go down, because there is no short whell base and they have said that they ae cutting rental fleets, look at our local rental car place. They are full of T&Cs and Caravans. Think boy think.
Mark 6:37PM (10/02/2007)
Why don't you think? The Ford count includes their import brands. I said "Ford-Lincoln-Mercury", which outsold Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge by only about 16,000 units. Considering short wheelbase counted for less than 10% of Chrysler minivan sales, sales won't go down. Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country will see at least a 20-30% rise in sales in 2008. Combined with the Journey, Liberty, and Challenger, Chrysler is well on track to outsell Ford-Lincoln-Mercury.
SPG 6:46PM (10/02/2007)
I dunno about that.
Regarding Chrysler,
the Journey is very forgettable and the new vans just don't seem to have the same instant success style to them.
Well, from the ones I have seen driving around Winnipeg.
Austin 7:39PM (10/02/2007)
When you count sales you have count all their brands together. Like Porshe, VW, Audi, Bently, Lambo, and Bugatti, or Toyota, Scion, Lexes. You just don't cut it off wherever you feel like it,it just doesn't work like that.
Mark 9:42PM (10/02/2007)
Are you kidding me? It works any way anybody wants it. If you want to compare Ford and Chrysler, you have to compare them similarly, so you can compare them with their domestic brands. It does work that way. It is idiotic to say it doesn't.
And that's besides the point. I clearly said "it looks like Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge might outsell Ford-Lincoln-Mercury". I never said "It looks like Chrysler LLC might outsell Ford Motor Co.", which, judging by the way things are going, might just be Ford-Lincoln-Mercury in a few months. You really need to learn some 7th grade reading comprehension.