SAN FRANCISCO (AFX) -- With their financial futures on the line, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors said Wednesday they sold fewer vehicles in the U.S. in February than a year ago while foreign rivals reported higher sales.
Autodata Corp. reported that so far this year, U.S. car sales are outpacing truck sales, a reversal from a year ago when trucks outsold cars. Through February, sales are up from last year's level by about 2.5%.
Rising gasoline prices and aggressive competition are putting pressure on the key truck segment, which includes SUVs, throughout the industry.
The month's total sales total about 1.2 million vehicles, according to Autodata, which is down 1.7% from last year.
Analysts had anticipated the pace of February industry sales to slow from January's hot pace, stoked by domestic automakers' business with sales to corporate and government customers.
But the numbers are in line with recent February results for the industry.
'This month is on par with recent February results but does reflect some hesitancy on the part of businesses in the purchase of trucks,' said Paul Taylor, chief economist at the National Automobile Dealers Association.
In 2004, February sales totaled 1.25 million vehicles and about 1.22 million in 2003, Taylor said.
Overall, February U.S. auto sales came in at a slower pace than January but were higher than a year ago, according to Autodata. The February 2006 seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate was at 16.61 million units, up from 16.42 million in February 2005. For January, the SAAR was 17.64 million, according to Autodata.
Ford
Ford also laid out plans to produce fewer vehicles in the second quarter of this year and GM said it will cut back on production in its biggest markets.
Ford sold 4% fewer vehicles during February than last year for a total of 204,846 units. By production category, Ford said truck sales fell 5.4% to 153,083 units, while car sales fell 1.4% to 90,938 during February.
Most brands, with the exception of Land Rover's strong increase, sold fewer vehicles than in February 2005. The high-volume Ford brand reported a 1.6% decline in sales to 204,846 units.
Ford also said that it will build more cars but fewer trucks during the second quarter of this year than it did in 2005. The No. 2 domestic automaker in January announced plans to pare vehicle output in the future.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based company said it will build 890,000 vehicles, of which 325,000 will be cars and 565,000 will be trucks, during the second quarter. The total is down from 906,000 vehicles built in the second quarter of last year, broken down as 294,000 cars and 612,000 trucks.
'This year gas prices and interest rates are going to likely dampen consumer spending somewhat as compared to 2005,' said Ford's chief economist Ellen Hughes-Cromwick during a conference call after the results. 'So sales in the 17 million unit range or better in the first half of this year at this point seem consistent with incoming indicators.'
GM
General Motors Corp. said it sold 2.5% fewer vehicles in the month of February than it did a year ago for a total of 301,545 units. Car sales fell 13% to 112,656 units while truck sales, a category that includes its redesigned large SUVs, increased 5.3% to 188,889 units.
The high-volume Chevrolet brand reported a 3% decline in sales to 177,710 vehicles while Hummer sales jumped over 200% to 5,645 units, outselling Saab, which also had higher sales.
GM also said it will build fewer vehicles during the second quarter for the North American, European and Asia-Pacific markets. Higher output is planned for the smaller Latin America, Africa and Middle East markets.
DaimlerChrysler
Separately, DaimlerChrysler AG said U.S. sales increased 4% to 207,723 vehicles during February, led by a 28% increase in Mercedes-Benz sales.
Chrysler Group's sales increased 3% to 190,367 units, while Mercedes-Benz sales totaled 17,356 units, helped by the newest version of the company's top-level S-Class models, DaimlerChrysler said.
Toyota
U.S. sales of Lexus and Toyota vehicles rose 2.4% in February to a record for the month at 166,940 vehicles, Toyota Motor Sales said. Lexus vehicle sales increased 7.1% to 21,127 units while Toyota vehicle sales rose 1.7% to 145,813 units. Overall, truck category sales, which include pickups, SUVs and minivans, rose 8.6% to 79,021 units while car sales fell 2.6% to 87,919 units.
For the month of February, the pace of sales had been expected to rise to as high as 17 million units on an annualized basis. Among specific projections, Edmunds.com is forecasting a pace of 16.4 million units and Merrill Lynch is estimating 16.6 million units for the month.
Honda
Higher U.S. Honda sales in February helped overcome weakness at Acura as the Japanese automaker's overall results increased 8.7% in February to a record 106,644 units, American Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday.
Honda brand sales rose 12.8% to 92,498 units while Acura sales fell 12.4% to 14,146 units. Sales in both the car and truck category rose for the company.
Nissan
Nissan said its U.S. sales rose 2.2% to 84,241 vehicles, a February record high for the Japanese company. Nissan brand sales rose 3.3% to 74,997 units while Infiniti sales fell 5.5% to 9,244 units.
Overall, truck sales fell 0.3% to 40,057 units while car sales rose 4.6% to 44,184 units.
So far this year, GM's stock is up nearly 5% since coming under major selling pressure last year.
Ford shares have risen more than 3% but also have suffered major declines. DaimlerChrysler's U.S.-listed shares are up 11% since the beginning of the year. This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com.