Archive for the ‘sales slump’ Category

Detroit's Big Three may have grabbed most of this week's headlines, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the world's automakers have been sitting on their hands. One story that isn't getting much play is the fact that Toyota Motor Company -- which posted its first-ever loss last fiscal year -- returned to profitability last quarter.

Although the company's financials weren't quite as impressive as those Ford released on Monday, the ¥21.8 billion ($242 million) profit Toyota realized in July, August, and September 2009 marks a welcome break from the losses Toyota posted in the three previous quarters. Of course, that ¥21.8 billion figure...

The rumors were true: Ford Motor Company has just published financials from the third quarter of 2009, and without being overly optimistic, it's fair to say that the data is moderately rosy. Among several bright spots in the report, one that seems particularly impressive is that July - September of 2009 saw Ford North America's first profit since the first quarter of 2005, four-and-a-half years ago.

In addition to Ford's North American pre-tax profit of $357 million, the company recorded a total net income of $997 million during Q3. That's a substantial improvement on the roughly $200 million loss posted one year ago, during Q3 of 2008...

The good news  for the auto industry -- or at least, the less terrible news -- keeps on coming: according to projections from J.D. Power & Associates, new vehicle sales for October 2009 are expected to ring in just 6% below the same period in 2008. That's the best year-over-year improvement for U.S. auto sales in 17 months (apart from the 13% increase of August 2009, which was an aberration due to Cash-for-Clunkers). Much of the lift seems to have come from pickup trucks, which now make up about 14% of the overall vehicle market. It's probably too early to start doing the Charleston on cafe tables just yet, but we're going to dust off...