GM, Ford post sales declines

Companies blame frozen January; Chrysler tops forecast

FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, file photo, a buyer moves between rows of Ram pickup trucks and Dart sedans at a Dodge dealership in Littleton, Colo. Chrysler says its U.S. sales rose 8 percent in January 2014, as it posted strong growth despite the frigid weather that gripped much of the nation. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, file photo, a buyer moves between rows of Ram pickup trucks and Dart sedans at a Dodge dealership in Littleton, Colo. Chrysler says its U.S. sales rose 8 percent in January 2014, as it posted strong growth despite the frigid weather that gripped much of the nation. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., the largest U.S. automakers, reported wider declines in deliveries than analysts estimated as the coldest January in two decades kept some shoppers from dealerships.

Sales of cars and light trucks fell 12 percent for GM and 7.5 percent for Ford, according to company statements. Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. also reported deliveries that declined and trailed estimates. Chrysler Group LLCand Nissan Motor Co., which reported results exceeding analysts’ projections, fielded new sport utility vehicles that drove much of their gains.

The industry trailed analysts’ estimates that had called for the eking out of a sales increase during the coldest January in the contiguous U.S. states since 1994, according to Commodity Weather Group LLC. GM, Ford and Toyota have forecast a fifth straight year of rising deliveries in 2014 after totaling 15.6 million in 2013, the industry’s best annual result since 2007, according to researcher Autodata Corp.

“GM and Ford’s concentration of sales are in the areas that were badly hit by bad weather,” said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst at auto researcher Edmunds.com. For Chrysler, “products like the Cherokee will continue to do well. They continue to up their product game.”

Chrysler, the U.S. carmaker merging with Fiat SpA, said its sales climbed 8 percent, exceeding analysts’ average estimate for a 5.4 percent gain. Nissan sales rose 12 percent to a record for the month of January, according to a statement. The Yokohama, Japan-based carmaker topped the average of seven analysts’ estimates of a 10 percent increase.

Deliveries of Chrysler’s Jeep Cherokee totaled 10,505 during its fourth month in the market. While sales fell sequentially from 15,038 in December, the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company wouldn’t have extended its streak of year-over-year gains without that model. Deliveries of Nissan’s redesigned Rogue surged 55 percent to 13,831.

“This weather seems to be getting played up quite a bit, but that could be expected in January,” said Reid Bigland, Chrysler Group’s head of U.S. sales. “If we remember back to January 2013, it most certainly wasn’t sunny and 72 every day in the north. That’s January. It’s cold and snowy. It’s icy.”

While California and the Western U.S. were strong regions for Chrysler, its third-best performing area was the Great Lakes region, including Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, Bigland said.

Sergio Marchionne, chief executive officer of Chrysler and Fiat, will rely on two models this year to fuel profitable growth for the group: the Jeep Cherokee and the revamped Chrysler 200 sedan that BobDylan pitched during Sunday night’s Super Bowl broadcast.

Dylan’s Super Bowl commercial featured a two-minute homage to America and American pride and ended with him imploring consumers to buy domestic cars. Deliveries of the outgoing 200 sedan, which will be replaced with the model featured in the ad in the first half of this year, rose 23 percent in January to 10,912.

“So let Germany brew your beer, let Switzerland make your watch, let Asia assemble your phone,” Dylan said in the commercial. “We … will build … your car.”

Even after the better-than-estimated sales, Chrysler said its inventory rose to 105 days’ supply; automakers generally consider a 60 days’ supply ideal. Inventory also rose to 114 days for GM and 111 days for Ford as sales declined for top models including the Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-Series pickups and the Chevy Malibu and Ford Fusion midsize sedans.

“January got off to a pretty slow start with really inclement weather in the heartland of the country, all the way down into Texas,” said John Felice, U.S. sales chief for Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford, during a conference call. “As things improved around the country midmonth, we saw a bounce back in demand and sales, which was encouraging. Then, sadly, the last week of the month we saw again another arctic blast.”

The weather cost about six days of sales in January for Dorschel Automotive Group, said Tim Rinaldi, director of sales for the Rochester, N.Y.-based chain of dealerships with vehicle brands including Toyota, Nissan and Volkswagen.

Sales fell 7.2 percent for Toyota and 2.1 percent for Honda, missing analysts’ average estimates for a decline of 2.7 percent by Toyota and a gain of 4.8 percent by Honda.

Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia Motors Corp.’s combined deliveries may have risen 2.4 percent in January, the average of seven estimates. Combined sales of the Seoul, Korea-based automakers have trailed the industry-wide pace each month since September 2012. Hyundai brand sales rose 0.7 percent to 44,005, according to a posting on Twitter.

Volkswagen AG reported a 14 percent drop in combined January sales for the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company’s VW and Audi brands, a wider decline than four analysts’ average estimate of 0.6 percent.

Information for this article was contributed by Keith Naughton, Mark Clothier, Jeff Green,Tim Higgins and Alan Ohnsman of Bloomberg News.

Business, Pages 23 on 02/04/2014

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