Wow, I Love This Blog -- Anticipation Rewarded -- Despite Hurricane Dorian -- Record US SUV Sales -- September 4, 2019

EV sales here.

US auto sales, August, 2019, link here: light trucks drive Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyndai to gains. Any American makers in that list of four? What's going on here?

Fiat Chrysler, Ford, and GM no longer release monthly US sales data; their data is now released quarterly. Everyone else? Monthly sales data.

Update, September 5, 2019: from MarketWatch -- annualized August auto sales in the US were "better than expected" and up 2% year-over-year at 17 million vehicles, equal to a three month average. 

Original Post

 

Year-over-year change:

• Honda: a whopping 20%
• Hyundai: 12%
• Nissan: 16%
• Toyota: 12%
• VW: 10%
• US light vehicle: 13%

Other takeaway notes:

• first time in four years that each of the four big Asian companies were up more than 10 percent in a given month. All of them were aided by strong demand for light trucks; "recession just around the corner" so folks are buying light trucks now to ride out the recession when prices would be even less;
• July’s estimated 1.2 percent gain marked the first time this year that sales rose – if estimates for the Detroit 3 are accurate. Starting in July, Fiat Chrysler joined Ford Motor Co. and General Motors in reporting on a quarterly basis.
• Honda: a monthly record -- repeat, a monthly record (albeit helped by an extended month, Labor Day weekend); but, still, a monthly record;
• Nissan: volume rose 16% but it's luxury division, Infiniti dropped 15%
• retail sales rose 11 percent in August, Hyundai said, marking the sixth time in the last seven months that the brand achieved year-over-year retail sales growth. Hyundai along with Kia were among the few automakers to reduce incentive spending in August
• retail deliveries of Hyundai crossovers totaled 34,844, a monthly record, with sales of the subcompact Kona rising 34 percent. 
• Hyundai said August sales of the new, three-row Palisade crossover topped 5,000, exceeding company targets.
• the sales increases came despite threats posed by Hurricane Dorian. Many dealers along Florida’s Atlantic coast shuttered or curtailed sales operations over the weekend as showroom traffic dwindled and to allow employees to prepare for the storm

Memo to self: new car -- the Chrysler minivan (the Pacifica) vs the new Hyundai Palisade. It appears to be a no-brainer.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, career, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

For investors, F:

• last raised its divided (from 12 cents to 15 cents in January, 2015 -- more than four years ago)
• large, extended family living off those dividends
• paying 6.54%
• trailing PE: 17
• forward P/E: 6.6 
• trading in range, mid-year
• one-year target: slight gain ($10.86)