Engines purr
GM comeback as car sales soar
AUTOMAKERS, including recall-plagued General Motors, revved up their sales in May as demand for trucks and SUVs heated up along with the weather.
GM’s U.S. sales surged 13% last month, notching the company’s best performance in seven years and cruising past analysts’ forecasts. U.S. sales also jumped more than expected last month at Chrysler, Ford, Nissan and Toyota.
Industrywide, sales hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16.77 million, according to research firm Autodata.
“Sales in the first quarter were slower than forecasted, largely due to bad weather across a huge chunk of the country,” Michelle Krebs, an analyst at AutoTrader.com, told the Daily News.
“That built up demand that’s unleashing now.”
The auto industry posted a third month of strong sales after cold weather chilled activity at dealer lots in Jan- uary and February.
GM’s sales were boosted by demand for its pickups and SUVs — tracking a recent rebound in home construction.
Consumers appear to be shrugging off GM’s ongoing struggle to deal with 2.6 million recalls for safety issues tied to 13 deaths. Ford’s sales climbed 3%, defying expectations for a slight drop.
Sales of its best-selling F-Series pickups, though, fell 4% as it pulled back on discounts ahead of the debut of its new aluminum model this summer.
Chrysler reported a 17% sales gain for the month that marked its best May sales since 2007. Those results got a boost from Jeep vehicle sales, which jumped 58%, and its Ram trucks, which climbed 17%.
Nissan’s sales jumped 19% in May, while Toyota’s surged 17% and Honda was up 9%.
With News Wire Services