U.S. Sales Post 4th Straight Annual Increase Despite Sluggish Growth in December

U.S. light-vehicle sales ended 2013 weaker than expected, although deliveries increased from year-ago for the 40th consecutive month in December.

December’s volume of 1.352 million units put the final total for the year at 15.532 million, 7.5% above 2012’s 14.442 million and the highest for any year since 16.1 million in 2007.

It made the fourth straight increase from the prior year. If sales increase again in 2014, it will be only the third time in the post-World War II era that demand climbed five straight years.

December’s volume equaled a daily selling rate of 54,093 units over the month’s 25 selling days, 4.0% above year-ago’s 51,992 (26 selling days).

Bad weather at the end of the sales period across the Midwest and on the Northeastern coast likely dampened demand. Analysts at General Motors also said there was a large amount of pull-ahead sales into November with Black Friday deals being among the largest in history.

Third-party sources also indicate there was not as much increase industrywide in incentive activity from November to December as in past years, and that average transaction prices remained at long-time, if not all-time, highs for most manufacturers.

Several major vehicle segments declined in sales from year-ago. However, except for the small-volume Large-Car segment, CUVs were the fastest-growing segment group in 2013 with a strong 12.0% increase over year-ago. For the year, CUV sales were up 15.5% and accounted for a record 25.5% of the market.

December sales of small CUVs surged 36.2% over year-ago, while Large Luxury versions were up 22.4% and Middle CUVs increased 14.8%.

Large pickups, which had been going gangbusters the entire year slowed somewhat in December, with sales rising only 1.5% from year-ago, compared with 15.7% for all of 2013.

Large-pickup share in December of 12.9% was below year-ago’s 13.2% and the segment’s first year-over-year shortfall in 12 months. Ford, despite a 10.9% sales increase for its large pickups in December, extended the holiday shutdown at its Dearborn, MI, plant by one week to pare inventory of its F-150s, further evidence of a slowdown in segment growth.

GM’s large-pickup deliveries, despite being mostly redesigned models, declined 12.9% from year-ago. However, the drop could in part be due to Ford unloading ’13 models that are in ample supply due to late changeovers to ’14-model output and from Chrysler likely heavily incentivizing its Ram pickups, which recorded a 15.3% increase in December.

Luxury-car sales increased 19.4% above year-ago on the strength of such brands as Audi, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes and Porsche.

Other segments posting increases were Large Cars, up 43.4%, and Large Vans (22.1%).

Declines in December included Small Cars, down 4.8%, and Middle Cars, off 5.4%. SUVs also dropped, falling 0.5% from year-ago.

Light trucks, overall, hit their highest penetration (54.6%) for any month in two years, and totaled 51.2% for entire-2013, vs. 49.8% in 2012.

Pull-ahead sales into November appeared to affect GM the most among the major-volume manufacturers. While sales increased in the month for most manufacturers, GM declined 2.6%, Also down were Mazda, Volkswagen and Volvo.

Big gainers included Mitsubishi (62.4%), Jaguar/Land Rover (22.1%), Daimler (21.6%), Nissan (15.0%), Porsche (14.4%), Subaru (14.0%), Chrysler (9.8%), Honda (5.9%), BMW (4.3%) and Ford (5.1%).

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