Detroit's Big 3 2010 sales

[Exotix]

Detroit's Big Three automakers post solid 2010 sales.

Has the U.S. auto industry turned the corner?



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Detroit's Big Three post solid 2010 sales - Business - Autos - msnbc.com



DETROIT — Detroit's Big Three automakers posted solid sales gains in 2010, showing that perhaps the worst of their woes are in the rear view mirror.

With sales of around 11.5 million new cars and trucks, 2010 was still the second-worst year in almost three decades, after 2009.
And car companies are starting to wonder if they will ever reach the heights they saw in the early 2000s, when credit was cheap, incentives were rampant and sales topped 17 million.




Still, 2010 was a good year for Detroit.

Ford said on Tuesday that it posted a 15 percent increase in sales last year, grabbing market share from rivals Toyota and General Motors, which reported a 6.3 percent rise in sales of cars and trucks.

Chrysler came in with a 17 percent sales increase, aided by purchases from rental car companies and by strong demand for its new Jeep.




Other winners included South Korea's Hyundai, which notched record sales.
Toyota Motor Corp. struggled.

Its sales were flat in 2010, a casualty of the company's tarnished safety record.
Toyota has recalled more than 10 million vehicles since late 2009 for various issues, including sticky gas pedals.




Ford sold 1.9 million cars and trucks in 2010, which it said was the second year in a row it gained U.S. market share, its first back-to-back increase since 1993.

The Ford F-150 pickup was the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. last year.

The company also saw strong sales of its Fusion midsize sedan and Edge, which has the roominess of an SUV but handles like a car.
Sales of Ford's luxury Lincoln brand rose only 4 percent for the year.

Without the Volvo brand, which Ford sold last fall, Ford's sales climbed 19 percent for the year.




The reports from the top automakers capped a year of slow, but steady, recovery for the industry that is expected to continue in the new year.

Car companies have downsized and they're producing fewer vehicles, so they don't have to resort to costly incentives in order to clear out inventory.

Big incentives — like the employee pricing for everyone program in the summer of 2005 — were one reason buyers flocked to dealerships.

Also, buyers have been spooked by falling home prices and stubbornly high unemployment.
But the economy is improving, and car companies are more confident about 2011.





U.S. sales of GM cars and trucks rose 6.3 percent last year as a strong lineup of new models helped the company make a comeback from its 2009 bankruptcy.

GM sold 2.2 million cars and trucks in 2010, nearly 131,000 more than the prior year, even though it got rid of four brands to focus on Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC.

The company's December sales rose 7.5 percent because of hot sellers such as the Chevrolet Equinox, a smaller SUV that seats five people.
Equinox sales rose 80 percent.




Chrysler sold 1.1 million cars and trucks as its four brands notched large increases.

Much of the sales increase early in the year came from low-profit sales to rental companies.
The year's final months were marked by strong sales of the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

December sales climbed 16 percent from a year earlier.

Sales of the Grand Cherokee, for example, were more than three times their level from a year earlier, when the vehicle hadn't been revamped.

"The Jeep brand continues to be the best thing Chrysler has going.

There are still too many dogs in the house (Patriot, Compass, Liberty), but the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee have huge brand equity," stated Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Karl Brauer.





For the year, the number of cars, SUVs and pickups sold in the U.S. will rise ...

... to 11.5 million, said Truecar.com analyst Jesse Toprak.

In 2009, sales notched their worst performance since 1982 at 10.4 million.
Sales reached 16.1 million in 2007, the final year before the Great Recession took hold.




GM expects a gradual industry sales recovery in the United States, but not a return to boom levels of a few years ago when the automakers totaled close to 17 million vehicles.

"If you start to look around the 15 million mark, maybe the 16 million mark, that's probably in the realm," GM U.S. sales chief Don Johnson said on a conference call.
"But quite frankly, at this point, we don't know."

Ford has forecast U.S. auto industry sales for 2011 at 12.5 million to 13.5 million vehicles including medium and heavy trucks. Ford expects industry sales globally to reach a record level of 75 million to 85 million vehicles in 2011.

"The global economy is reaching a dynamic phase," Ford chief economist Ellen Hughes-Cromwick said in a statement.





All auto companies reported December and full-year results Tuesday.
Other companies reporting were:

— Hyundai Motor Co., which said its sales rose 24 percent for the year to 538,000 vehicles, a record for the company.

— Nissan Motor Co., which reported a 17 percent sales jump for the year to nearly 815,000 cars and trucks.







2011 Corvette (ZR-1 ?)

[Y2Kvert4me]

Originally Posted by Exotix

2011 Corvette (ZR-1 ?)

2011 Corvettes have been rolling off the assembly line since July, and they look nothing like that.

[Exotix]

Originally Posted by Y2Kvert4me

2011 Corvettes have been rolling off the assembly line since July, and they look nothing like that.

I'm inclined to agree ( I think these are pics of *The Transformers* vette ) ... I was over at the local dealership the other day in time to see a doctor trade in his 2010 for what looked to be a 2011 Grand Sport ... had a nasty wide-body stance with the biggest set of rear tires I think I've seen ... *drool*