Edmunds Data: April Showed Seasonal Dip in Auto Sales

As April is about to end, Edmunds.com has come out with their early U.S. numbers to show just how automakers performed this month. The general rule seems to be that March was prettier than April, but reviewing last year’s figures can put it all in perspective.

Overall, Edmunds.com predicted 1,464,176 new cars and trucks would be sold in April before it’s all said and done. Those projected sales figures are down 5.1 percent from a month ago yet they’re up 5.5 April 2014. According to these projections, the SAAR sits at 16.7 million.

Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell, who we spoke to last week about the first quarter, gave insight into how April looked for retail automotive. In a press release, Caldwell said, “It is very common for April sales to be slower than March, which typically gets a boost from certain automakers who offer great deals to motivate shoppers as the companies close their fiscal year.”

The data from Edmunds.com looked at figures for automakers GM, Ford, Toyota, FCA US, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai/Kia and VW/Audi. The strongest performer in the bunch was General Motors, which posted a 6.1 percent increase in sales volume from last month and a 4.4 percent increase year-over-year. The April projection for GM amounted to 265,174 units. The tougher news was for Nissan. Their projection for April was 113,712 units, however their trend was downward. Nissan is down 21.6 percent from last month, however they are still up 9.5 percent year-over-year. Nissan is certainly looking for more powerful months as they try to grab more market share in the U.S. Numerous other automakers were trending downward compared with March. Those included Ford, Toyota, FCA US, Nissan and Hyundai. In the end, the Industry as a whole is down 5.1 percent from the month of March.

The other category that the Edmunds data measured is Market share in the United States. GM is the strongest in this area at 18.1 percent, gaining 1.9 percent over last month. GM is followed on the market share listing by Ford at 15.2 percent, Toyota at 14.4 percent and FCA US at 13.1 percent. Nissan, the automaker trying to grab more market share in the USA actually lost the most since last month at a -1.6 percent. As the summer, and we look ahead to May, Caldwell sees improvement coming. In a statement, Caldwell said, “… We often think of April as ‘the calm before the summer storm.’ It won’t be long before the summer sell down of the outgoing model year vehicles, which always draws lots of foot traffic through dealerships.”

What do you make in some of the highs and lows shown in this study? Should automakers be concerned with some of the dips in sales numbers from March, or should one month only be considered a fluctuation rather than a trend? Is the 17 million vehicles sold target in jeopardy?