There was brighter news for Nissan, but more bad news for most other automakers Friday as July sales reports for most showed more declines, especially at the U.S. Big Three, whose trucks and SUVs continued a free fall as Americans bought more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Nashville-based Nissan North America was a key exception, posting an 8.5 percent increase in U.S. sales for the month. Surprisingly, trucks, not cars, led the gains.
Two of Nissan's Smyrna-built products, the Frontier midsize pickup and Xterra compact SUV, had big sales jumps for July, with the Frontier up 24.3 percent and the Xterra up 17.5 percent over July 2007.
Because truck sales have been down, Nissan on Wednesday said it would eliminate one of two daily truck shifts at Smyrna effective Aug. 11, and also said it would offer buyouts to workers to try to cut 1,200 jobs at Smyrna and the engine plant in Decherd, Tenn.
As for the rebound in Frontier and Xterra sales, "It's the incentives," said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive officer for the consumer automotive Web site Edmunds.com, which usually has rebate information for all vehicles. For the Xterra, up to $3,000 cash back is offered, and for the Frontier, the number has been $2,500.
"Incentives are heavy everywhere, but Nissan really stepped up on those vehicles, and it proves that consumers still love a bargain," Anwyl said.
Nissan spokesman Fred Standish attributed the Frontier's gains to rebates and the availability of a four-cylinder engine. "A lot of Frontier sales are four-cylinder," he said. Even with July's increases, though, Xterra sales are down 32.8 percent for the year, and the Frontier's are off 23.3 percent.
General Motors Corp., which has two assembly plants within an hour's drive of Nashville, posted a sales decrease of 26.7 percent for the month, compared with July 2007. Total U.S. sales were 235,184 vehicles.
But GM's hot-selling Chevrolet Malibu was up 79 percent, and the Buick Enclave crossover, similar to the new Chevrolet Traverse that will be built in Spring Hill, was up 28 percent.
Recovery seems distantFor the U.S. auto industry overall, sales fell 13 percent in the April-June quarter.
"A recovery in the North American market looks far off," said Yuuki Sakurai, a Tokyo-based general manager at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Sales for Toyota Motor Sales USA dropped 11.8 percent for the month, totaling 197,424. Pickup trucks were down 32.4 percent and SUVs off 26.3 percent.
At Ford Motor Co., whose trucks and SUVs are the heart of its lineup, U.S. sales fell
14.9 percent. Chrysler LLC said its sales fell 28.8 percent in July, to a total of 98,109 vehicles.
At Nissan, Smyrna and Decherd workers are being asked to sign up for buyouts of up to $125,000 by a Sept. 12 deadline. The carmaker earlier this week blamed the cuts on higher fuel prices and a weaker U.S. economy.
Still, July sales of Nissan's Quest minivan, built in Canton, Miss., rose 15.5 percent compared with a year earlier. The midsize Pathfinder SUV, built in Smyrna, was down 4.5 percent for the month, but that was an improvement, considering that its sales were down 38.1 percent for the year through July.
The Altima, built in Smyrna and Canton, showed a slight drop in July over the same month last year. It is still up for the year at 10.8 percent. And the premium Maxima sedan, also assembled in Smyrna, posted a 6.9 percent increase over last July; the redesigned 2009 model went on sale in June.
One other bright spot in July sales was a 4 percent increase for the German automaker Volkswagen over last year.
The company said it sold 20,442 vehicles in the U.S., compared with 19,653 a year ago. For the year, Volkswagen's U.S. sales are up 1.1 percent.
Most of VW's vehicles are fuel-efficient cars here. The company recently announced plans to build a new assembly plant in Chattanooga that will employ at least 2,000 people.
Quarterly results weakIn dollar terms, GM
posted a larger-than-expected $15.5 billion loss for the second quarter, and Nissan Motor Co. posted a drop of 42.8 percent in its worldwide net income for the three months ending June 30.
Still, Nissan showed a net profit of $505 million for its quarter, and said worldwide sales for the quarter were up 6.9 percent. U.S. sales declined 1.5 percent for the three-month period, April-June.
GM and Nissan blamed some of their income losses on write-offs for the drop in the residual values of leased vehicles.
Rapidly falling used-car prices this year have caused the book values of leased vehicles to drop as well. That resulted in a $1.6 billion charge on GM's quarterly report alone, for instance.
Nissan said it was hurt by the "negative impact of foreign exchange rates," which mostly involves the weakness of the U.S. dollar against the Japanese yen.
Ford Motor Co. on Thursday had reported a loss of $8.67 billion for the second quarter, a figure that included $8.03 billion in write-offs associated with the drop in truck and SUV sales, as well as residual values on leases.
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