Like a woozy boxer snapping to after whiffing the smelling salts, the Detroit car companies have made gains against their foreign competitors and actually (gasp!) gained domestic market share in what we believe are year over year numbers. Two of the three companies made in-roads against their primarily Japanese competition while one slowed slightly.
The two biggest winners were Ford and Chrysler with Ford gaining 1.5% of the market to settle on a total share of 16.7%. Chrysler’s improvement was only a fraction of a point, but it did result in them being able to claim 9.5% of the domestic market.
General Motors was the only downer of the three dropping from 19.6% to 19%. This seems to be a result of shuttering Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, and Hummer. General Motors has focused the company’s energy on becoming profitable and not just churning out profitless volume. The scaling back of the four brands definitely cost the company some sales, but saved it tens of millions in operating costs.
We found it interesting that Ford has basically closed to within 3% of GM. At the height of power in the 1960s, GM had 48% of the US market. Ford was at the 25% level. We’ll never see those numbers again in our lifetime, but it is good that these companies have seemingly turned a corner and are finally rolling in the right direction.
Source — UPI.com — Detroit Automakers Gain Market Share
