Here in Australia July was a great month for car sales but over in America things were quite different. Most brands, even imported brands, suffered some serious losses.
General Motors sales were down 22%, Ford dropped 19%, Chrysler fell 9% and Honda and Toyota fell 7%. Unsold inventory is becoming a major headache once again and General Motors is offering interest free loans to try and encourage consumers to come back to their brands.
Unfortunately for the American manufacturers people who are buying aren’t buying what they’re selling. The rising price of petrol is biting into SUV market, the dismal property market is impacting on the sales of pickup trucks and even sales of American small cars is nothing to get excited about.
It seems that after ignoring the small car market for so long the American manufacturers can’t win back consumers who think of Toyota, Honda and Mazda when they’re thinking of small cars.
Even quality products like the Chevy Cobalt just aren’t finding favour with new car buyers in the States.