U.S. Car Sales Slipped 2% in February

Deliveries of cars and light trucks in the U.S. dipped to 1.30 million units last month compared with 1.33 million vehicles in February 2017, says Autodata Corp.

On an adjusted annualized basis, last month’s sales pace slowed to 17.1 million units from 17.5 million a year ago.

February’s volume was dragged down by softer sales for the traditional domestic brands (-5% to 581,100 units) and Asian marques (-1% to 600,400 units). Deliveries of European makes climbed 7% to 120,600 vehicles.

The appeal of traditional cars continued to fade in the U.S., as car sales dropped 13% to 439,000 units. Demand for trucks advanced 4% to 863,200 units. Rising sales of Japanese-brand pickup trucks, minivans and SUV/crossovers offset declines for such models at GM (-4% to 173,800 trucks) and Ford (-5% to 148,900). Light-truck sales at Chrysler rose 1% to 144,700 vehicles.

Each of Detroit’s Big Three companies posted lesser sales last month. Registrations fell 7% to 220,700 units for General Motors, 7% to 193,400 units for Ford and 2% to 163,100 for Chrysler.

Results were mixed among Asian brands in February. Sales improved for Toyota (+5% to 182,200 units), Subaru (+4% to 47,200), Mazda (+13% to 25,700) and Mitsubishi (+19% to 13,000). But those gains were offset by lower volumes for Honda (-5% to 115,600 vehicles), Nissan (-4% to 129,900), Hyundai (-13% to 46,100) and Kia (-5% to 40,700).

All five of Europe’s top-selling brand reported year-on-year gains for the month. The group comprises Mercedes-Benz (+3% to 27,800 units), Volkswagen (+6% to 26,700), BMW (+4% to 23,500) and Audi (+12% to 15,500).