Automakers Report Strong April Sales

DETROIT (AP) — Detroit was king in April, with demand for its big pickups helping to boost U.S. auto sales and offset a soft month for Toyota.

Ford, GM and Chrysler sold a total of 144,042 full-size pickups, up 29 percent from last April, driven by strength in the U.S. housing industry.

Overall sales grew 8.5 percent to nearly 1.3 million. While that's the industry's best April total since 2007, the pace slowed from the first three months of this year. On an annualized basis, April sales were 14.9 million, the first month below 15 million since October.

One reason for the slowdown: Toyota. The Japanese automaker's U.S. sales dropped by 1 percent, or around 2,000 vehicles, from last April. Alec Gutierrez, a senior market analyst with Kelley Blue Book, said he and other analysts underestimated the impact that increasing competition is having on Toyota.

Popular Toyota vehicles like the Corolla and Camry sedans lost sales to fresher models like the Hyundai Elantra and the Ford Fusion. Gas prices — which are 30 cents cheaper than at this time last year — hurt sales of the Prius hybrid, down 21 percent. Toyota's share of the market fell to 13.7 percent from 15 percent a year earlier, putting it behind GM and Ford.

Analysts still expect the industry to sell more than 15 million cars and trucks this year. Gutierrez is keeping his forecast at 15.3 million. That's up from sales of 14.5 million last year. The most recent high was 17 million in 2005, while the trough was 10.4 million during the recession in 2009.

"We're not reading too much" into the April number, Gutierrez said.

Ford, General Motors and Chrysler reported double-digit sales increases last month. Nissan led Japanese automakers with a gain of 23 percent, while Honda's sales rose 7 percent. Volkswagen sales dropped 10 percent, according to figures released Wednesday.

Detroit dominates the pickup segment, as U.S. buyers remain loyal to domestic brands despite efforts by foreign brands to win them over. Sales of Ford's F-Series, the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., rose 24 percent, while Chevrolet Silverado sales rose 28 percent. Chrysler's recently redesigned Ram pickup saw a 49-percent increase.

The gains bode well for second-quarter earnings, since pickups are among automakers' most profitable vehicles.

Truck sales have been strong all year because of customers like Adrien McFrederick, who recently put down a deposit on a 2013 Ram 3500.

McFrederick, 35, owns a marble and tile business, and needed to replace the 2007 Silverado he kept while work was slow. He started looking at Rams late last year after he and his wife bought a Chrysler Town and Country minivan.

Businesses like McFrederick's are getting a boost from a rise in home building, which increased 7 percent from February to March. A revived housing sector means higher sales of big pickups as companies and laborers return to the market. GM said its sales to small businesses rose 32 percent to 57,000 in April.

A different kind of business — natural gas drilling — is propelling sales at Chuck Eddy Jr.'s Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership near Youngstown, Ohio. Eddy said energy industry workers from all over the country were coming in to buy trucks last month, keeping him in tight competition with a nearby Ford store.

"I'm selling heavy-duty trucks. We had people coming in from all over the country buying. We had a guy come in from Montana," Eddy said.

Jesse Toprak, a senior analyst for the TrueCar.com auto pricing site, said full-size trucks made up around 11.5 percent of sales in April, up from around 10 percent last year. He expects them to top 12 percent of total sales — or nearly 2 million vehicles — by the fall of this year, when truck sales are usually strongest. Full-size truck sales peaked at 15 percent of the U.S. market in 2004.

The growth in truck sales shows underlying strength in the economy, Toprak said, since small businesses won't buy them unless they're confident in the future.

Trucks Help Detroit Carmakers Post a Strong April

The boom in truck sales fed double-digit sales growth at all three Detroit automakers and kept the industry on track to sell more than 15 million vehicles this year.

Over all, the industry sold 1.28 million new vehicles during April, an 8.5 percent improvement over the same month a year ago, according to the research firm Autodata.

It was the best April performance since 2007, and another indication that sales of new cars and trucks in the United States are returning to prerecession levels.

“As long as automakers keep reporting their best sales in at least five years, we’ll continue to be in good shape,” said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst with the auto research site Edmunds.com.

Auto executives said pickup sales grew three times as much as the overall market during the month and were a direct result of improved housing starts and strong demand for trucks from the energy industry.

The biggest beneficiary was Ford Motor, the second-largest American automaker, which reported selling 212,000 vehicles during the month, an 18 percent gain from a year ago.

Ford, which recently reported strong first-quarter profit in North America, said sales of its F-series pickup increased 24 percent in April to 59,000 vehicles.

“F-series continues to lead the pace in the truck industry,” said Ken M. Czubay, Ford’s head of sales and marketing in the United States. “We are building as many as we can.”

Ford reported impressive gains across its lineup, with sales of the Escape sport utility vehicle up 52 percent and the Fusion sedan up 24 percent. Even its struggling Lincoln luxury brand had a 20 percent improvement because of strong sales of the new MKZ sedan.

To meet the growing demand, Ford is quickly moving to increase truck production by adding 2,000 jobs by the end of the year at its assembly plant in Kansas City, Mo. About 900 of the jobs will go toward adding a third shift of workers for F-series pickup production. The rest of the new positions will support the introduction next year of Ford’s new Transit commercial vans.

About half of the additional jobs will be filled by union workers who were laid off. The others will be entry-level hires who will be paid about half as much as experienced union workers.

General Motors, the largest of the domestic automakers, said it sold 237,000 vehicles during April, an 11.4 percent improvement from a year ago.

Cadillac had the best performance of G.M.’s four brands, with a 34 percent gain primarily from sales of its new ATS compact sedan and large XTS model.

G.M. also reported big gains on the truck side, as sales of its Chevrolet Silverado pickup increased 28 percent to 39,000 vehicles.

Chrysler, the smallest of the Detroit companies, said it sold 156,000 new vehicles during April, an 11 percent gain from a year ago and its 37th consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains.

The Ram pickup led the way with a 49 percent gain from a year earlier. Chrysler also enjoyed strong performances by its profitable S.U.V. models, with sales of the Dodge Durango up 65 percent and the new Jeep Grand Cherokee model up 27 percent.

All three Detroit companies gained market share during April and could sustain that momentum with a host of new products arriving this summer.

Growth among the Japanese automakers has slowed since their big comeback last year from inventory problems associated with the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011.

Toyota, the largest Japanese auto company, said sales fell 1.1 percent in April to 176,000 vehicles. The most significant drop was in sales of its flagship Camry sedan, which dropped 14 percent.

The company is preparing to bring out several new models, including fresh versions of its Lexus luxury cars. In April, Toyota said Lexus sales increased 3 percent.

The other two major Japanese automakers, Honda and Nissan, fared somewhat better. Honda said it sold 130,000 vehicles, a 7.4 percent improvement.

Nissan reported its healthiest gains in some time. The company said it sold 87,000 vehicles in April, a 23.2 percent increase from a year earlier. The Altima midsize sedan rose 35 percent, and sales of a new version of the Pathfinder S.U.V. more than doubled from April of last year.

Of the European automakers, Volkswagen reported that it sold 47,000 new vehicles, including Audi luxury models, during the month. That was a 4.5 percent decline from a year ago.

VW is rapidly expanding in the United States. It is relying on North American results to compensate for weakening sales in the sliding European market. A VW executive called April “a challenging month,” but said the company remained focused on its long-term growth strategy.