Toyota, Honda, Mazda Lead Asian Brands' U.S. Gains (Update2)
By Alan Ohnsman April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. increased U.S. sales more than 10 percent in March as demand for fuel-efficient vehicles helped Asian carmakers boost their share of the world's largest auto market. Sales rose 12 percent from a year earlier for Toyota, Asia's largest carmaker, 11 percent for Honda and 48 percent for Mazda Motor Corp., its biggest gain in 26 years, the companies said in separate statements yesterday. Japanese and Korean carmakers won 41.9 percent of new car sales in the U.S. last month with combined sales at General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler slipping to 51.6 percent. Higher gasoline prices boosted demand for fuel-efficient vehicles such as Toyota's Prius hybrid car and Honda's Fit at the expense of U.S.-made light trucks and sport-utility vehicles. ``This is the time I'd consider bringing in all the small cars I can to the U.S., given what's happened with gasoline,' said Jesse Toprak, a Santa Monica, California-based auto-sales analyst for Edmunds.com. ``Toyota, Honda, Nissan are able to meet demand for small cars now.' The average U.S. retail price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.53 last month, an increase of 25 cents, or 11 percent, from February, according to the U.S. Energy Department figures. In March 2006, the average was $2.43. Market Share Total U.S. sales of cars and light trucks rose 0.8 percent to 1.54 million, according to Autodata Corp. Combined sales for Japanese and South Korean automakers climbed 11 percent to 646,815 vehicles, for a market-share gain of 3.8 percentage points. Market share for U.S.-based General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler fell to 51.6 percent from 55.2 percent a year earlier on lower sales of light trucks and after GM and Ford cut sales to rental fleets. Toyota, Japan's largest automaker, sold 242,675 vehicles in March, an increase from 217,286 a year earlier, the company said. The company sold a record 19,156 of its Prius hybrid and demand for the redesigned Tundra pickup, released in February, rose 12 percent to 13,196. Prius, Tundra The Prius and the Tundra both benefited from incentives Toyota added in recent weeks, Don Esmond, senior vice president of the company's U.S. sales unit, said in a conference call. ``We made a conscious decision to expand Prius business this year,' Esmond said. Toyota raised its sales goal to 175,000 of the hatchbacks this year, 64 percent more than the 106,971 sold last year, he said. In February, the Toyota City, Japan-based company had said it expected to sell about 160,000 this year. The March pace for Prius may not be sustainable, Esmond said. A U.S. tax credit on the car, which dropped by half last year to $1,575 from $3,150, fell another 50 percent to $787.50 on April 1. Buyers avoiding the latest decline helped March sales, he said. Toyota's market share was 15.7 percent last month, rising 1.5 percentage points from a year earlier, according to Autodata. The company's shares rose as much as 1.8 percent to 7,550 yen and traded at 7,520 yen as of 9:40 a.m. in Tokyo. Honda, Nissan Honda sold 143,392 vehicles in March, helped by a 23 percent gain for Accord cars and a 2.6 percent rise in Civic compact sales. The Tokyo-based company, Japan's second-largest automaker, held 9.3 percent of the U.S. market, up 0.7 point. Honda's shares rose as much as 2.7 percent to 4,260 yen and traded at 4,250 yen. Nissan Motor Co.'s

 

It's true Toyota taking over.

 

Not if Nissan keeps this up... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZb2WJSvMiU

 

because most americans have no idea what having pride and supporting theircountry is all about......DAMNIT!!!!! Now I'm all pissed[:@][:@]

 

I'm SOOOO With you!!!! Buy AMERICAN, DAMNIT!!!

Except maybe German and Italian

 

I think that the US car manufacturers made a major management mistake.

Since they were sitting on the world largest car market, for decades they ONLY developped cars built for the needs of the current american domestic market anf they lacked to have the vision of the future needs of the americans consumers.

In the meantime, the competition, mainly european and asian car builders, spent most of their ressources in R&D thus developping new technologies more attractive to today's consummers.

they also made the mistake to underestimate the japanese and Korean builders leaving their domestic market wide open in the 80/90 while Europe was, during the same period, almost closing its borders to the imported cars by applying an heavy tax system.

The result of this string of mistakes is that, today, American cars builders are far behind Asian and Europeans in terms of design and technology as well as in term of image for the premium segment.

The main problem is that, now they neither have the financial ressources nor the time to compete.

So, all in all I disagree with Mike.
The Americans are not buying americans cars because their domestic manufacturers failed to offer what they needed at the time they needed it.
Nationalism cannot beat the market on the long run.
The car market being based on long cycles,the lack of vision the American car manufacturers have had about the global market and the customers needs during the 70/80 becomes payable now. Cash.

 

that may well be true if we are talking about the 80's or early 90's....but there is no reason for an American consumer to go out now and buy an Exterra,or Pathfinder or any import suv/truck when there are american made models equal or better than the import. The same goes for cars, there is no import on the market that there isn't an American made model equal or better than...PERIOD. The problem is that most of the US buyers are dumb and have gotten brainwashed into thinking that import=more dependable and never needs repair. That is as far from the actual truth as you can get....but most Americans swear it's true because thats what they have been trained to believe. As an auto tech for both chevy and Mercedes/Porshe....I can honestly tell you that the number of cars coming in for repair are pretty damn equal, but teh price of the repair bill isn't even a contest.

I do agree with you about America should close its doors to the outside car markets....I also think we should close our doors to immigrants too but thats a different story.