Sales Aren't the Only Thing Detroit Lost in 2008
January 09, 2009

By Bill Visnic

Nearly 3 million U.S. auto sales evaporated in 2008, and plenty of that blood was lost by the Detroit Three: General Motors Corp. sales were down 23 percent, Ford Motor Co. sales slid by 20 percent and Chrysler LLC sales dropped by 30 percent.

Total U.S. sales plunged from 16.1 million units in 2007 to 13.2 million for 2008. Equally interesting -- and troubling, for Detroit -- was that not only did the pie get painfully smaller, the domestic automakers' portion, market share, once again lost ground.

According to data from Edmunds.com, the Detroit Three lost a collective total of 3.7 points of market share in 2008. Chrysler led the group, ceding 1.9 points of share (from 12.9 percent of the market in 2007 to 11 percent in 2008). GM lost 1.4 percent (from 23.8 percent in 2007 to 22.4 percent). Ford gave back 0.4 points of share (from 15.5 percent to 15.1 percent for 2008).

Meanwhile, the three automakers who comprise the rest of the U.S. "Big Six" -- Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. -- all gained market share in 2008, despite their own heavy declines in actual sales volume.

Toyota picked up a half-point of share (16.3 percent of the market in 2007 to 16.8 percent in 2008), Nissan gained 0.6 percent (from 6.6 percent to 7.2 percent of the market) and Honda grabbed an extra 1.2 percent of market share (from 9.7 percent in 2007 to 10.9 percent for 2008).

The totals, then, maintained Detroit's decades-long giveaway of market share: in 2008, Detroit slid from owning 52.2 percent of U.S. auto sales to 48.5 percent.

The three largest Japanese automakers gained 2.3 percent of market share in 2008 (from 2007's 32.6 percent to 34.9 percent for 2008), leaving 1.4 percent to be distributed among the smaller automakers.

Edmunds.com data crunchers said that apart from the Japanese big three, these brands were the market-share gainers for 2008, from top to bottom (Infiniti and Scion are divisions of Nissan and Toyota):

Brand          Percentage Point Gain

Subaru          0.26 
Volkswagen   0.26 
Kia                0.17 
Mazda           0.16 
Mini               0.15
Hyundai         0.14
Mercedes      0.13
BMW            0.10
Audi              0.08
Infiniti            0.07
Scion            0.05
Jaguar           0.02
Suzuki          0.01

Source: Edmunds.com

In effect, then, 1.4 percent of the market share lost by the Detroit Three was split by 11 automakers not affiliated to the Big Six.

Of those 11 brands to gain market share in 2008, only three -- Mini, Jaguar and Subaru -- also sold more vehicles than in 2007, underscoring the depth of the U.S. market's overall volume plunge. And even among those three makes, the volume gains were miniscule: Jaguar sold 83 more cars in 2008; Subaru retailed 493 more vehicles and Mini, largely due to the addition of its new Clubman model, sold 12,106 more vehicles in 2008 than in 2007, making it the year's dual leader of both market-share gain and volume increase.

 

Photo by Mini

Thanks mainly to the addition of the Clubman model, the Mini brand was the U.S.'s market-share and volume-gain leader for 2008.

 

Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:44 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | Seed Newsvine

Technorati Tags: 2008carmarketshare, 2008carsales, audi, bmw, chrysler, ford, generalmotors, honda, hyundai, infiniti, jaguar, kia, mazda, mercedesbenz, mini, miniclubman, nissan, scion, subaru, suzuki, toyota, volkswagen