Cobalt records best August yet in sales

Cobalt sales were up 7
percent from last August.

STAFF/WIRE REPORTS

The Chevrolet Cobalt posted its best August for sales since it was launched late in 2004.

General Motors Corp. said Tuesday that it sold 20,814 Cobalts in the U.S. last month, which was 7 percent more than the number sold in August last year and 13 percent more than was sold in August 2005.

Last month was a good month for the Cobalt by 2007 standards. Last month’s sales were the second highest this year for the Lordstown-built car, topped only by May’s sales of 22,409.

So far this year, GM has sold 133,101 Cobalts, which is down 19 percent from the same time last year. GM has said that sales were down earlier this year, in part because it has cut back on the number of cars being sold to fleet customers.

GM last month recorded sales of 2,766 Pontiac G5s, which also are made in Lordstown. It sold 1,569 G5s in August of last year.

Industrywide, Toyota and Ford reported sales declines last month, but GM surprised industry analysts by showing an increase.

Toyota’s 3 percent decline and Ford’s 14 percent drop were symptoms of what analysts expected to be a declining U.S. auto market due to rising mortgage payments and turmoil in the financial markets.

But GM, led by increased pickup truck sales, showed an increase of 6 percent, and Nissan Motor Co. reported sales increased 6 percent for August.

Reasons for sales drop

Ford Motor Co. has attributed declining sales through the year to efforts to wean itself off low-profit sales to rental car companies and other fleet buyers. It also said it had heavy incentives that boosted sales in August of last year.

Ford’s car sales of 64,864 were off 34 percent when compared with the same month last year, while light truck sales slipped 2 percent to 152,572, the company reported.

In August, sales to individual retail customers were down 13 percent, but daily rental sales dropped 44 percent, the company said.

GM’s car sales dropped 8 percent, but its truck sales rose 17 percent for the month. GM raised incentives on its new pickup truck models earlier in the month. GM sales include Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Hummer, GMC, Pontiac and Saturn, as well as the European Saab brand.

Cars down, trucks up

Toyota’s car sales were down 6 percent, but its trucks were up 2 percent compared with August of last year. Its figures include the Lexus and Infiniti brands.

Nissan truck sales, led by the full-sized Titan pickup, rose 8 percent compared with August of last year, while its car sales were up 4 percent, the company reported. Its figures include the Nissan and Infiniti brands.

Industry analysts had predicted a slowdown in overall U.S. car sales for August and for the rest of the year.

The automotive forecasting company CSM Worldwide has predicted that U.S. sales will total 16.2 million in 2007, or 350,000 fewer vehicles than last year. That would be the lowest annual sales level since 1998 and more than 1 million vehicles lower than the peak of 17.3 million in 2000, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank.