U.S. auto sales probably fell in
December from the same month of 2002, as General Motors Corp. and
Ford Motor Co. cut incentive spending from November. The December
sales pace still was the second highest in 2003, analysts and
economists estimated.
The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate dropped to 17.8
million cars and light trucks in December from 18.3 million in the
year-earlier month, based on the average forecast in a Bloomberg
survey of five auto analysts and nine economists. A sales decline
would be the first in four months. Automakers report December
sales on Monday.
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General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler, the
three largest automakers in the U.S., probably didn’t think it was
“necessary to pump up the volume with incentives like they did a
year ago,” said Burnham Securities analyst David Healy. “This is
probably healthy.”
General Motors and Ford want to boost profit by easing up on
rebates and loan discounts that they’ve been using to try to stem
market-share losses. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler had 61.8
percent of the U.S. market through November, down 1.2 points from
a year earlier, as Toyota Motor Corp. and other Asia-based makers
rose 1.2 points to 32.8 percent, according to Autodata Corp.
The average forecasts of the auto industry analysts surveyed
by Bloomberg showed the December declines from the year-earlier
month were 9 percent for General Motors, 6.8 percent for Ford and
3 percent for Chrysler. Asian and European automakers’ sales
combined probably will rose about 3 percent, the analysts
estimated.
The results are adjusted for one more sales day this December
than a year ago. A 17.8 million annual sales rate would trail only
the 19 million pace in August among 2003’s months.
Bloomberg News
