October Auto Sales Fall 3%

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Dealers reported the incentives began to abate after a couple of months, but according to Automotive News, Toyota is still offering $2,500 in dealer incentives on 2007 models.

GM's Market Share Gains

GM slipped about 1% in October, to 310,008. Still, the news isn't that bad for the General, which saw its unadjusted number move up about 3% over October, 2006. That was the third month in a row that GM sold more vehicles than the year-ago month.

That meant GM gained market share for the fourth month in a row, said Paul Ballew, executive director for global market & industry analysis at GM. GM's market share was about 25% in October, vs. 24.4% a year earlier. Year-to-date through October, GM's market share was off a fraction of a percentage point, to 23.9%.

Ballew said the redesigned Cadillac CTS (BusinessWeek.com, 10/22/07) is off to a good start, with October sales of 6,586, 75% ahead of the year-ago month. GM is also launching a redesigned Chevy Malibu with a big advertising blitz. But, with less than a full month's sales of the new model for comparison, Malibu sales were lagging behind the year-ago month.

The new Malibu is attracting about 50% "conquests" from other brands, compared with about 40% for the old model, Ballew said.

Mark LaNeve, vice-president for vehicle sales, service, & marketing at GM North America, said that GM realizes it will take time, probably years, to get Honda Accord (HMC) and Toyota Camry buyers to consider a Chevrolet.

"We've been very up-front with this launch that we're competing with the Honda Accord, the Toyota Camry, and the Nissan Altima. We're not naive about how hard it's going to be to conquest those customers," he said.

Ford Falls Again

Ford sales fell more than Chrysler. Total Ford sales were down about 10% for October, to 195,462, with a decline of about 13% year-to-date, to just under 2.2 million.

George Pipas, Ford's U.S. sales analysis manager, said that not counting fleet sales, Ford's retail market share is stable at about 13% of the U.S. market. "It's an important goal in '07 and '08 to stabilize the retail share. Our plan and our assumption is around 13%. After years of decline, it was important to arrest that, and do it on the back of new products," Pipas said.

"Make no mistake, our ultimate plan is to grow, and do it profitably," Pipas said. "But we know that consumers can't be turned around automatically, just because we've introduced a new product."

Jim Henry is a reporter covering the automotive industry and automotive trends in BusinessWeek's New York office.