General Motors posted an 11.5% increase in February US sales, the automaker said today.
The results came hours after GM announced it will recall 1.3 million cars in North America over a potentially faulty power steering motor following a federal probe into the problem in January.
GM, like most other automakers, was expected to see a sales gain in February in the wake of a series of mass recalls at Japanese rival Toyota.
DETROIT -Automakers plowed through a snowy February to better-than-expected sales, and new incentives led by beleaguered Toyota will keep the momentum going into spring.
Despite some analysts' predictions of single-digit gains, sales rose 13 percent over last February and all major automakers but Toyota Motor Corp. reported higher U.S. sales. Most took customers from the Japanese automaker, which has been struggling with a series of massive safety recalls. Toyota's U.S. market share fell to 12.8 percent, its lowest level since July 2005, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank.
Ford's sales shot up 43 percent and the automaker outsold GM for the first time since August 1998, when GM was in the midst of a strike. Ford's gains were led by cars, which rose 54 percent, with sales of the midsize Fusion, a Toyota Camry rival, more than doubling. Those results included Volvo, which Ford is preparing to sell.
"We feel we're getting our fair share of the Toyota business," said Susan Docherty, who was head of sales and marketing at GM until Tuesday afternoon, when she was moved into solely a marketing role. GM's sales rose nearly 12 percent.
Even though Toyota's sales dropped, the company did better than many analysts predicted, said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and analysis at TrueCar.com, an auto pricing site. He suspects incentives aren't the only reason, because they weren't high enough to attract customers worried about safety.
"This tells me that Toyota's brand strength and loyalty was far stronger than most of us thought," he said.
Automakers were expecting to see gains over February 2009, which was one of the weakest months in a very depressed year. Still, winter storms at the beginning and end of the month hurt sales. GM said its sales dropped 22 percent in the Northeast region.
"It's hard to get enthusiastic about going out and looking for a new car when you have to shovel out," said Raymond Ciccolo, president of Village Auto Group, which owns seven franchises in the Boston area.
GM sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni said sales probably would have been 5 percent higher had it not been for snowstorms. That means the gradual economic recovery is continuing despite setbacks in home sales, new home construction and unemployment, he said.
GM's sales of its Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC brands climbed 32 percent. GM plans to keep those four brands and is phasing out Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer. It has sold Saab.
Much of GM's sales increase was due to demand for large new wagons such as the Chevrolet Equinox, which jumped 133 percent.
Chrysler, meanwhile, said its February sales rose half a percent, its first year-over-year monthly increase since December of 2007. Chrysler's minivan sales rose, as did sales of its sedans.
