Over the past few months, the Movers and Shakers list has proven to be quite lively. The long held assumption that General Motors is always number one in America and that Toyota is a close two was completely thrown at the window in February as Ford handedly surpassed both.

In February, the auto industry managed to move 780,265 vehicles or a 13.3% rise from last February’s miserable sales performance. This is also up 81,365 vehicles from January.

Most analysts agree that the sales improvement could have been better if it were not for a shortage of the hottest selling models, the snowstorms that halted most commerce in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest and, of course, the Toyota recalls.

According to Automotive News, at a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR) the industry is moving 10.36 million vehicles, well above 9.1 million SAAR from last year.

Still the picture isn’t that great. The double digit spike in sales was almost totally accomplished by fleet sales. Overall, retail sales for the month were only 1% higher than the miserable lows of Feb. 2009. A little under 200,000 vehicles sold to fleet for the month.

Ford: Ford’s continuously improving sales performance and the overall good will for the automaker has catapulted the company into first place.

This is the first time Ford has been number one in America, a position long held by General Motors, since a strike in 1998 crippled GM. Ford also experienced the number one sales position in 1970 during another big GM strike. Once you exclude Volvo (a brand that Ford is in the process of selling off to China’s Geely), Ford actually sold 4,073 fewer vehicles than GM.

Ford sold 142,285 vehicles, a 43.1% increase. Of those sales, about 55,000 were fleet – a 74% increase over last year. More Ford’s went to government, commercial and rental fleets than any other car company operating in America.

Ford sales mix improved slightly from January: 61% truck vs. 39% car sales. As gas prices continue to climb, this type of sales mix could tip the balance back in Toyota’s favor if the company can ever recover from its recall scandal.

Big nameplate winners for the month include Ford Fusion (+116.5%), Mercury Milan (+99.6 %), Ford Taurus (+93.3%), Ford Mustang (+71.1%), Ford Edge (+66.7%) and Ford F-Series (+39.3%).

Ford’s triumph over General Motors was partially due to a healthy inventory of its most popular models; GM has been unable to keep its popular models in stock. Ford was also one of the greatest beneficiaries of Toyota’s recent woes. According to Truecar.com, Ford gained a quarter of Toyota’s lost new car buyers.

Ford ended the month with a 18.2% market share, an increase of 3.8% in market share from Feb. 2009.

General Motors: The reality of having only four brands is beginning to sink in at General Motors. The automaker had 141,438 delivers, which was a 12.7% increase over Feb. 09.

Ford ever so slightly edged out General Motors as the number one automaker. Being number one is a position GM has held onto every month for the past 12 years. On a yearly basis, GM remains the bestselling car company since 1931.

It was long believed that GM would eventually be usurped in its home market by none other than Toyota. Up until the middle of last year, nobody would have expected Ford.

In every vehicle segment General Motors posted positive sales gains. GM’s truck vs. car sales stood at 58% to 42%, which was basically the same vehicle mix GM has had for the past two years.

Big nameplate winners for the month included the Cadillac SRX (+541.7%), Buick Lacrosse (+163.3%), Chevrolet Equinox (+132.8 %), Chevrolet HHR (+82.2%) and Chevrolet Cobalt (+69.5%).

GM sold 32 percent of its vehicles to fleets, which places the company in the upper echelon of fleet sellers. Still, the company sells relatively less to fleet than either Ford or Chrysler.

According to The Wall Street Journal, shortages of GM’s newly launched vehicles, such as the Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain, limited potential sales in February. This has led to complaints by senior executives and some big GM dealerships that conservative forecasting caused the company to fall behind Ford.

GM’s sold 3,102 of its non-core brand vehicles (Saab, Saturn, Hummer, and Pontiac) or about the same amount of vehicles Ford will lose when the Volvo sale finally goes through.

GM market share stood at 18.1%, down by 0.1% from Feb. 2009.

Toyota: Despite one of the worst monthly sales performances this decade, Toyota tried to stay positive about the situation. Toyota group vice president Bob Carter said he was “surprised that we sold as many cars as we did.” The decline was indeed less than most analysts had been predicting.

Toyota sold 100,027 vehicles in Feb, a -8.7% decrease from Feb. 09. All of Toyota’s recalled models posted negative numbers: Camry (-19.8 %), Corolla/ Matrix (-6.1%), Avalon (-65.1 %), Highlander (-27.8 %), Sequoia (-55.1 %), Tundra (-4.5 %) and RAV4 (-19.0%).

Toyota’s February sales numbers and market share should be considered an anomaly as the cessation of sales in late January dragged into the early part of February. March will be the first true test as to the lasting impact of the recalls. Toyota increased imports and domestic production for many of the vehicles affected by the recalls in February, which leads me to believe there will be a pretty hard sales push in March.

Despite the recalls, there were also potential Toyota customers who stayed out of dealerships because of the major incentive offensive the car company was planning.

Yesterday, Toyota announced zero percent financing for up to 60 months on 2010 Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Matrix, RAV4, Tundra and Yaris, for qualifying buyers. There are also attractive lease offerings and free maintenance programs for loyal Toyota buyers.

Toyota ended the month with a 12.8% share, a 2.9% market share decrease from Feb. 2009.

Chrysler: Chrysler had a rare rally for the month of February – regaining its fourth place sales position from Honda. Chrysler sold 84,449 vehicles in February (up 0.5%).

That small sales increase is very important, because it ends Chrysler’s 25 month sales decline.

But the good news sadly stops there. Chrysler’s small victory was due to massive incentive spending and fleet sales.

According to Automotive News, Chrysler sold 35,000 vehicles to fleets. Fleet accounted for nearly 60% of all of Chrysler’s sales, an astoundingly unhealthy mix. When you subtract fleet sales, Chrysler is decidedly the smallest of the Movers and Shakers.

While Chrysler slashed $2,220 off of incentive spending, according to Edmunds, it still remains one of the largest incentive spenders, behind General Motors.

Big nameplate winners for the automaker include the Chrysler Sebring (+118%), Jeep Compass (+107%), Dodge Avenger (+78%), Chrysler 300 (+62%) and Dodge Charger (+55%). Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep all posted positive sales gains for the month. The newly created Ram brand was down 31%. Chrysler had 3 vehicles on the top 20 nameplate list for February, an improvement from just the Ram in January. Interestingly, the Dodge Charger is now Chrysler’s best seller, not the perennially best selling Dodge Ram.

Chrysler’s market share stood at 10.8% – a 1.4% market share decrease from last year, same month.

Honda: Honda sales were up 12.7% from Feb. 2009. While 80,671 vehicles sold is a healthy performance from the car maker, it wasn’t enough to keep its fourth place position in the market.

The top three Honda models in sales for February were the Honda Accord (22,456 units), Honda Civic (16,471) and Honda CR-V (11,828). These three vehicles account for 63% of all of Honda’s sales.

The Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Honda FCX Clarity, Honda Odyssey, Acura MDX and Acura RDX all posted positive sales numbers for the month.

The Honda Accord remains the best selling family sedan for the second month in a row – it was also the second best selling vehicle in America after the Ford F-Series.

Honda ended the month with a 10.3% market share, which is about even with last year’s market share.

Nissan: Nissan moved 70,189 vehicles last month; a 29.4% increase from last year. Nissan managed a market share of 9.0%, which is a 1.1% market share improvement from Feb. 2009.

Some of Nissan’s sales position has to do with its incentive spending. Nissan is the largest spender out of all the Japanese automakers; it also increased spending by $178 from January – to $2,602 per vehicle sold, according to Edmunds.

Nissan’s clear sales leader was the Nissan Altima, the third best selling family sedan in America. Nissan moved 11,609 Versas too; making it the carmaker’s second best selling vehicle, and the best selling subcompact in the country.

Nameplate winners include the Nissan Versa (+130.1%), Nissan Maxima (+89.5%), Nissan Frontier (+56.5%) and Nissan Armada (+101.2 %).

Infiniti moved 7,041 units, up 10.7% from the same month last year.

Hyundai/ Kia: Hyundai, and its subsidiary Kia, had another good month. Hyundai Group moved 58,056 vehicles, up 9.2% from Feb. 2009. Hyundai’s market share basically remained stable as compared to last year.

Kia again experienced poor truck sales, which are dragging the brand down. The Kia Sportage (-61%), Kia Sedona (-84%) and Kia Rondo (-65%) had terrible showings. Though, with 8,207 new Sorentos sold, Kia’s new crossover is the best selling vehicle in the Hyundai/Kia group.

Over at the Hyundai brand, the Accent (+18%), Santa Fe (+34%) and new 2011 Tuscon (+50%) showed growth.

The new 2011 Sonata sales were much improved, at 7,964 units (+34%), keep in mind that some of that is mixed in with the 2010 MY. The Hyundai Sonata is the groups’ second best selling vehicle and is sure to regain a position as a top 20 nameplate once the automaker gains a sufficient amount of inventory at dealerships.

Hyundai is spending $160 million on the Sonata and $80 million on the Tucson in advertising.

***Source: Sales data provided by the OEM. Market share/ vehicle segment analysis provided by www.motorintelligence.com via The Wall Street Journal ***

Images by: Andrew Walensa

Filed under: By the Numbers, Industry News

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