Several major automakers reported improved sales for January, with the notable exception of troubled Toyota Motor.
Toyota said Tuesday that January sales fell 16% from a year earlier, worse than a forecast of a 12% year-over-year decline from sales tracker Edmunds.com.
Toyota had to suspend the sales of its most popular models for much of the last week of January due to a problem with sticking a gas pedal that caused unexpected acceleration of its vehicles.
But Ford Motor, General Motors and Nissan all reported January sales that were higher than a year ago. Honda Motor and Chrysler both said January sales fell from the same period last year.
Ford (F, Fortune 500) reported that sales rose 24% from January 2009, although they fell 37% short of December’s total. The gain was weaker than the forecast of a 33% rise by Edmunds.com though.
Still, Ford’s sales are likely good enough to lift its market share and vault it back into the No. 2 position in terms of U.S. sales, passing Toyota Motor (TM).
But Ford also has been on a run of critical success, with its Fusion sedan winning several “Car of the Year” awards in recent months. Sales of the Fusion rose by 49%, pacing similar growth across all of its car models. But sales gains of Ford light trucks and crossovers were far more modest.
Ford was also helped by what it estimates was a 50% jump in industrywide fleet sales to businesses and government buyers compared to a year ago, when the economic crisis led to a plunge in purchases by rental car companies. Ford’s fleet sales soared 154% from those depressed levels, while retail sales to consumers slipped 5%.
Ford vice president Ken Czubay said he didn’t think the company got any significant sales bump because of the problems at Toyota.
Czubay said the halt in sales created more confusion in the market than demand for other automakers’ products. He said the typical bump in industrywide sales expected for the last weekend did not occur, which led to weaker than expected retail sales.
“There was not a significant movement yet. People weren’t going to overreact to the uncertainty,” he said.
The overall industry is expected to rebound compared to a year ago, when the financial crisis and soaring job losses caused industrywide sales to plummet 37%. GM sales rose 14% from last year while Nissan sales were up 16%
Edmunds.com forecasts industrywide sales rose 7% in the month
