The Q3 sales numbers from most of the automakers came in finally, and it was a bit of a mixed bag. Hurricane Helene certainly wreaked havoc on many of the big car markets across America at the worst possible time; the end of the month and the end of the quarter. Those sales will likely be made up in October, along with additional sales from all the cars that were flooded and totaled. Some new car dealers lost a lot of inventory to the storms associated with Helene, and those could be hard to replace, especially for Toyota and Lexus, both of which were short in supply already. Add to that the Longshoremen strike, and the 4th quarter could be challenging if this turns out to be a long strike.
When the smoke cleared, the auto industry was down roughly 13% from the 3rd quarter of 2023. Factors besides the hurricane was a year ago there were a lot of pent-up sales from the chip shortage, and this year spot-shortages of vehicles hurt sales at Toyota, Honda, and a few others. Still, most dealers were overloaded with inventory and remain that way as we head into the final quarter of 2024 and the big yearend push we’ll see. I will add that talking to the Car Pro Show dealers around the country, the month of September felt sluggish and was a bit of a struggle. Falling interest rates will certainly be a welcome addition to everyone.
Looking at the 3rd quarter, Ford beat out Toyota once again by a slim margin, Chevy came in 3rd, and Honda and Hyundai rounded out the top 5. Ford said electric sales were up 12% and hybrid sales were up 38% in the 3rd quarter. The Blue Oval boys announced free EV home chargers including installation for EV buyers starting now to try to relieve some of the over-supply of electrics on dealer lots.
The woes at Stellantis continued in the 3rd quarter, and that hurt overall industry sales. Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram sales were off from 6% to 47% on the four brands. In addition, Maserati was down also. The one bright spot for Stellantis came from Fiat, up 117%, but to put it in perspective, that only accounted for a little over 100 sales per month in the 3rd quarter across the entire United States. I do see evidence Stellantis is going to step up incentives for Q4, which is badly needed.
Subaru extended its month-over-month sales streak to 26 straight months, and you know I’ve been rooting for Mazda all year and they celebrate a 25% 3rd quarter increase from the same time a year ago. Luxury vehicle sales were down as a whole, but we won’t see 3rd quarter numbers from Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover, and Jaguar until later in the month.
Transaction prices neared $44,500 last month, which was almost $1,300 lower than September 2023. This is due to rising incentives and bigger dealer discounts than seen after Covid and the microchip shortage. According to reports, the incentives in September averaged from $3,000 to $5,400 at Jeep, Nissan, GMC, Ram, Ford, and Tesla. Chevrolet, Kia, Hyundai, and Mazda averaged nearly $3,000 per vehicle, while Honda and Subaru hovered around $2,000 per vehicle. Toyota with the shortages, only averaged $1,379 per vehicle including Lexus.
In a continuing trend, auto loans are getting longer at the same time monthly payments are getting higher. Falling interest rates could reverse both trends. Also, pickups and SUVs accounted for over 80% of sales in the U.S. in Q3, while sedans and hatchbacks tallied just over 19% of total sales.
Here are your winners & losers for the 3rd quarter of 2024 versus the 3rd quarter of 2023 and the percentage up or down:
| Manufacturer | Q3 2024 | vs Q3 2023 |
1. Ford |
474,782 |
Flat |
2. Toyota |
461,879 |
10% |
3. Chevrolet |
419,801 |
6% |
4. Honda |
333,105 |
10% |
5. Hyundai |
210,971 |
5% |
6. Kia |
197,710 |
6% |
7. Nissan |
197,528 |
1% |
8. Subaru |
171,169 |
5% |
9. GMC |
151,865 |
6% |
10. Jeep |
144,963 |
6% |
11. Mazda |
110,966 |
25% |
12. Ram |
108,925 |
19% |
13. Volkswagen |
93,271 |
6% |
14. Lexus |
80,997 |
8% |
15. BMW |
78,128 |
7% |
16. Buick |
47,405 |
8% |
17. Audi |
46,752 |
21% |
18. Cadillac |
37,214 |
4% |
19. Acura |
33,109 |
10% |
20. Mitsubishi |
31,588 |
42% |
21. Volvo
|
28,535 |
12% |
22. Dodge |
26,559 |
43% |
23. Lincoln |
25,713 |
26% |
24. Chrysler |
22,482 |
47% |
25. Genesis |
20,117 |
4% |
26. INFINITI |
14,540 |
12% |
27. MINI |
5,284 |
33 % |
28. Alfa Romeo |
2,049 |
29% |
29. Lamborghini |
1,030 |
3% |
30. Bentley |
875 |
3% |
31. Maserati |
770 |
21% |
32. Rolls-Royce |
400 |
24% |
33. Fiat |
316 |
117% |
As I have told you, I put no credibility in the reported sales of the all-electric automakers. They only report estimates, not actual bona fide sales. However, I will tell you what they reported for the 3rd quarter, as ridiculous as the numbers look, although I recommend you take them with a grain of salt:
Photo Credit: Andy Dean Photography/Shutterstock.com