By the Numbers - October 2008: "Thanks, GMAC!" Edition
by John Neff on Nov 3rd 2008 at 4:00PM 
Sales for the month of October 2008 were... ahem... not good. The auto industry in the U.S. has found a way to slide further into oblivion with only a few bright spots from Audi and MINI, the latter of which enjoyed monster sales last month we suspect on account of greater production capacity this year versus October 2007.While all the major players were down, General Motors, the largest of them all, was hit the hardest. Its sales volume for October 2008 fell 45% compared to last year. It went from selling an average of 11,923 cars per day in October 2007 to just 6,318 last month. Each of its brands were down, with HUMMER taking the Biggest Loser crown (yet again). The real story, however, is how close behind the other brands were, with Cadillac falling 55.1%, Buick 46.3%, Chevy 40.3%, GMC 52.5%, Pontiac 48.2% and Saturn 54.6%.
What can account for GM's entire brand portfolio taking such a hit? GMAC, the financing arm of General Motors that's majority owned by Cerberus. Halfway through the month GMAC decreed it would only lend money only to buyers with a credit score above 700, which effectively wiped out in-house financing for the majority of GM customers. While dealers could still work with banks to secure financing (and were encouraged to do so), it appears the damage wrought by GMAC could not be undone.
| BY THE NUMBERS - October 2008 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Vol. % Change | Total Sales 10/08 | Total Sales 10/07 | DSR % Change | Daily Avg. 10/08 | Daily Avg. 10/07 |
| Acura |
-21.56% | 10,108 | 12,886 | -24.46% | 374 | 496 |
| Audi | 0.3% | 7,443 | 7,420 | -3.4% | 276 | 285 |
| BMW | -13.9% | 20,203 | 23,451 | -17% | 748 | 902 |
| Buick | -46.3% | 7,642 | 14,231 | -48.3% | 283 | 547 |
| Cadillac | -55.1% | 9,541 | 21,267 | -56.8% | 353 | 818 |
| Chevrolet | -40.3% | 107,313 | 179,825 | -42.5% | 3,975 | 6,916 |
| Chrysler | -50.8% | 19,903 | 40,440 | -52.6% | 737 | 1,555 |
| Dodge | -27% | 53,267 | 73,020 | -29.75% | 1,973 | 2,808 |
| Ford | -27.9% | 114,969 | 159,361 | -30.5% | 4,258 | 6,129 |
| GMC | -52.5% | 21,109 | 44,456 | -54.3% | 782 | 1,710 |
| Honda | -25.66% | 75,756 | 101,913 | -28.41% | 2,806 | 3,920 |
| HUMMER | -64.6% | 1,368 | 3,864 | -66% | 51 | 149 |
| Hyundai | -31.1% | 20,820 | 30,232 | -33.7% | 771 | 1,162 |
| Infiniti | -28.5% | 7,112 | 9,954 | -31.2% | 263 | 383 |
| Jeep | -32.9% | 21,360 | 31,856 | -35.4% | 791 | 1,225 |
| Kia | -38.5% | 15,483 | 25,185 | -40.8% | 573 | 969 |
| Lexus | -35.2% | 16,283 | 25,119 | -37.6% | 603 | 966 |
| Lincoln | -27.7% | 7,399 | 10,229 | -30.3% | 274 | 393 |
| Mazda | -25.9% | 16,442 | 22,201 | -28.7% | 609 | 854 |
| Mercedes-Benz | -34.3% | 14,996 | 22,820 | -36.7% | 555 | 878 |
| Mercury | -47.4% | 6,753 | 12,844 | -49.4% | 250 | 494 |
| MINI | 56.4% | 5,272 | 3,370 | 50.6% | 195 | 130 |
| Mitsubishi | -19.3% | 7,486 | 9,280 | -22.3% | 277 | 357 |
| Nissan | -33.5% | 49,833 | 74,992 | -36% | 1,846 | 2,884 |
| Pontiac | -48.2% | 13,054 | 25,182 | -50% | 483 | 969 |
| Porsche | -50.1% | 1,427 | 2,862 | -52% | 53 | 110 |
| Saab | -13.2% | 1,975 | 2,275 | -16.4% | 73 | 88 |
| Saturn | -54.6% | 8,583 | 18,908 | -56.3% | 318 | 727 |
| Subaru | NA | |||||
| Suzuki | -46.7% | 3,482 | 6,536 | -48.7% | 129 | 251 |
| Toyota | -21.3% | 135,818 | 172,473 | -24.2% | 5,030 | 6,634 |
| Volkswagen | -7.9% | 15,889 | 17,260 | -11.4% | 588 | 664 |
| Volvo | -52.1% | 3,717 | 7,761 | -53.9% | 138 | 299 |
| COMPANIES | ||||||
| BMW Group | -5% |
25,475 |
26,821 |
-8.5% |
944 |
1,032 |
| Chrysler LLC | -34.9% | 94,530 | 145,316 | -37.4% | 3,501 | 5,589 |
| FoMoCo | -30.2% | 132,838 | 190,195 | -32.7% | 4,920 | 7,315 |
| General Motors | -45% | 170,585 | 310,008 | -47% | 6,318 | 11,923 |
| Honda Amer. | -25.2% |
85,864 |
114,799 |
-28% |
3,180 |
4,415 |
| Nissan NA | -33% | 56,945 | 84,947 | -35.4% | 2,109 | 3,267 |
| Toyota Mo Co | -23% |
152,101 | 197,592 | -25.9% | 5,633 | 7,600 |
Update: Dodge numbers fixed.
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
Idjit 4:43PM (11/08/2008)
Blindly basing business decisions on credit scores is a nice path to disaster. So is sending refund checks for 16 cents to customers that overpaid their payoff amounts, even though the amount was given by GMAC itself. Credit scores do not take income into account, so they can not provide any real insight into a borrower's ability to make their payments. There are a lot of 6-figure income folks with credit scores well under 700 that are not credit risks.
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Pranav 3:59PM (11/24/2008)
I guess it had to take such a big and painful slowdown for the American car buyer to start buying what s/he needs rather than the best deal or something bigger than what the neighbor bought!
I am from India... and am pretty amazed (disgusted?) at the wasteful excesses that are GM cars. Overweight, oversized, over powered, and under engineered. Can't blame GM though, that's what the market has been asking for over the decades. Toyota has responded with the filthy landcruisers and tundras too. Japanese engineers, who hate even the tiniest waste, would have felt so ashamed to have designed the Tundra!
As American pockets feel the pinch, I was assuming they'd gradually wake up to the fact that they don't need a 6 meter long car to ferry 5 people and their luggage, it can be done in 3.5 meters! But this hasn't happened. Americans have stopped buying cars, rather than buy fuel and space-efficient machines.
Categories like the large SUV, full-size pick-up and mini-van are essentially redundant - they should eventually deflate into small niche areas rather than mainstream classes.
For American roads, with a speed limit of 70, you NEVER really need more than 100 bhp. The Honda FIT is what is needed here, anything over and above that is an unnecessary excess! But I guess America is still not realizing that - there is still a stigma associated with owning a car which looks that small from outside (Try sitting inside... it is so intelligently designed, there should have been PRIDE associated with owning it!)
But I guess with a slowdown this long, Americans will surely realize this sooner or later. And this will cause further problems for GM.
Because Toyota and Honda have a solid portfolio of compact vehicles developed for space-crunched Japan - GM does not, except for some Daewoo acquistions like the Aveo. So this change in mindset is going to make a third of Toyota's portfolio redundant, but push ALL of GM's portfolio to the brink of extinction. And this is an industry where bankruptcy means liquidation.
So now, when GM most badly needs capital to re-engineer its entire product line-up, it cant get any because of the economy. I don't see how they can survive, with or without the federal loan (because that wont go into research, it will just provide a 3-4 month lifeline to cover operational losses)
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