U.S. Car Sales Slide 4%

Deliveries of cars and light trucks in the U.S. market fell about 4% to an estimated 1.39 million units in October, according to Autodata Corp. Final numbers will be available when Ford Motor Co. reports its results on Wednesday.

Autodata says October’s annualize sales rate was 18.3 million compared with 18.2 million in 2015. The company estimates market volume through the first nine months of 2016 totaled 14.50 million units, virtually flat with the same period last year.

Sales by General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles last month dropped 2% to 258,600 units and 10% to 174,000, respectively. Autodata estimates that Ford’s volume slipped 2% to 208,300 units, contributing to a 4% combined decline in October for traditional domestic brands.

Demand for trucks advanced 2% to 852,300 units. But car sales continued to suffer, falling 13% to 540,400 units last month. Trucks rose to 57.6% share of the market.

October sales by Asian brands dropped 4% to 621,600 units. Three nameplates saw sales rise: Hyundai (+4% to 62,500 units), Subaru (+4% to 53,800) and Mitsubishi (+3% to 7,600). But those gains were offset by lower volumes for Toyota (-9% to 186,300 units), Honda (-4% to 126,200), Nissan (-2% to 113,500), Kia (-2% to 49,000) and Mazda (-11% to 22,700).

Deliveries of European marques fell 10% to 126,300 units in October, dragged down by hefty shrinkage for Volkswagen (-19% to 24,800 vehicles) and BMW (-18% to 24,000). Sales by Audi were flat at 17,700 units. Demand for Mercedes-Benz models slipped only 1% to 31,400 units, thereby extending the brand’s lead over BMW.