DETROIT – The Detroit Three sold 50.2 percent of the light vehicles purchased by U.S. consumers last month, capturing a majority of the market for the first time since August 2009, as the effects of Japan’s March earthquake continued to rock the auto industry.
Chrysler led major U.S. automakers with a 30.2 percent year-over-year sales gain in June. Sales grew 10.6 percent at GM and 13.3 percent at Ford.
But shortages of cars on Toyota’s and Honda’s lots kept their consumers out of showrooms, dragging each of their sales down 21 percent and holding the overall U.S. annual sales rate to 11.5 million – its lowest level since August 2010 and well below analysts’ expectations.
“The Japanese automakers really got hit hard, much harder than any one of us anticipated,” said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with TrueCar.com.
Despite growing unemployment, automakers said the low Japanese inventories, not the economy, bore most of the blame for the slow U.S. sales rate. As Toyota and Honda ramp up production, dealers should restock their lots this fall. That, automakers said, should improve sales in the second half of the year.
While some small-car buyers were waiting last month, large-vehicle shoppers were buying.
Shortages of Japanese small cars and dropping fuel prices combined to give truck, SUV and crossover sales 49 percent of June U.S. light-vehicle sales, compared with a 50.1 percent share for passenger cars. That’s a recovery from a dip to 47.4 percent in April, when cars made up 52.6 percent of U.S. sales, according to Autodata.
“There’s a big asterisk on the car market being that, industry-wide, particularly for us, there was some significant shortages,” said Bob Carter, U.S. chief of the Toyota division.
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