The top four automakers in the US missed December sales expectations, but 2013 will still easily be the best year for the industry since before the recession.
General Motors said that the auto industry will have December US sales at a 15.6 million-vehicle annualized selling rate, well below the 16 million vehicles expected by 27 economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
The late-December holiday season is generally one of the heaviest sales periods at auto dealerships.
This year, sales that may have occurred in December were pulled ahead to November because of a late-month, four-day Thanksgiving weekend, said John Felice, head of sales at Ford.
December auto sales were also hampered by snowy and icy weather over parts of the country late in the month, said Chrysler spokesman Ralph Kisiel.
For all of 2013, US auto sales are expected to finish near 15.6 million vehicles, up about 8 percent. That would be the best sales year since pre-recession 2007.
GM’s sales fell 6 percent, to 230,157 new vehicles, below analysts’ expectations of a slight sales gain. Ford’s sales rose 2 percent, to 218,058, also below analysts’ expectations, while Toyota’s sales fell 1.7 percent, to 190,843, versus expectations of a slight gain.
Chrysler reported a 6 percent gain to 161,007 vehicles, its best December since 2007, but still narrowly missing analyst expectations.