As Usual, California is the Car Capitol
The 1 March 2004 issue of Automotive News had a very interesting article on how GM is trying to boost its market share in California. ["GM tries to catch a wave in Calif."] That's not news, but the statistics quoted from an R.L. Polk & Co. study shows how important California is for vehicle sales.
First, California accounts for 11.7% of all vehicles sold in the United States. The number is a staggering 1,953,246. Apparently, GM's share of California sales slid to 17.1% in 2003, the fifth year of decline. Ouch! Let's look at the stats:
10 Top-Selling Vehicles in California in 2003
- Ford F-Series Trucks
- Honda Accord
- Toyota Camry
- Toyota Corolla
- Chevrolet Silverado Truck
- Honda Civic
- Toyota Tacoma
- Ford Explorer
- Dodge Ram
- Chevrolet Tahoe
Top 6 Manufacturers for Market Share in California in 2003 *
- Toyota
- GM
- Ford
- Honda
- Chrysler
- Nissan
* For the study, Toyota includes Toyota and Lexus. GM represents Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Saturn. Ford includes Ford, Lincoln and Mercury. Honda is Honda and Acura. Chrysler includes Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge. Nissan is Nissan and Infiniti.
While those statistics are very interesting, the most interesting numbers to me are the Toyota/GM stats that show just what a force Toyota is. As reported in the article, while GM is first in total registrations in California, only 68.7% of those sales are retail sales! The rest (31.3%) are fleet/rental cars. This is no surprise as in California GM sells most of its Pontiac, Chevy and Buick passenger cars to the rental fleets. Toyota's retail sales represent 94.3% of its total sales (5.7% fleet). That is a big difference. It appears GM is having a rough time selling any of its cars to the general public.
For 2003, Toyota commanded a California market share of 20.8%, up from 19.7% in 2002. The trend continues for Toyota in 2004. GM thinks it's fighting back with such spectacular models as the Chevy Aveo, Malibu and Equinox. Let's not forget the totally uninspired, brand new, Pontiac G6 or the equally boring, brand new, Buick LaCrosse. The Chevy SSR is a very low volume truck and the upcoming C6 will sell well, but not enough to make a dent in GM's California sales. Perhaps the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon will increase truck sales. Since no one bought the Chevy S-10 or the GMC Sonoma, it's likely that there will be some increase in GM's small truck sales here in California. Good luck challenging Toyota! There is nothing special about the new GM truck twins.
I think the fact that Nissan made the top 6 list is amazing given that just 5 years ago, Nissan was losing sales and money at a very alarming rate. Great new product brought Nissan back.
Let's do some more fun statistics. Of the top 10 vehicles listed above, Toyota and Honda sold 267,790 vehicles in California while GM, Ford and Chrysler sold only 213,871. If we look at the top 6 manufactures listed above, Toyota, Honda and Nissan account for 40.5% of total vehicles sold in California while the domestic Big 3 (assuming Chrysler still counts as domestic) only have a market share of 38.7%. The remaining 20.8% must be made up by other foreign brands such as Mercedes, BMW, Kia and Hyundai. In total, California buys 61.3% of its cars and trucks from foreign manufacturers. I'm sure if the numbers were broken down even further to Southern California, the import percentage would be even higher.
The story here is that the domestic manufacturers are losing ground every year to the imports. GM seems worried, I have no idea if Ford has any strategy at all and Chrysler/Dodge dealers are lost as to how to sell a rear drive car like the 300 and the Magnum. The outlook isn't good.
My favorite quote in the article came from a local GM dealer. "We need people to buy our cars without big money on the hood. But even though GM has a lot of attractive new product, and quality has improved, we still have miles and miles to go." Duh.
California accounts for almost 2 million vehicle sales a year. That makes California one of the most important markets in the world. Below are some statistics on vehicles sold in 2003:
- Japan: 5.8 million
- Germany: 3.24 million
- United Kingdom: 2.58 million
- France: 2.01 million
- Russia: 1.433 million
- Spain: 1.38 million
- Australia: 883,000
From everything I read and see, Los Angeles, California is probably the most important single car market in the U.S., if not the world. I hope we will get more respect and attention from the car manufacturers.
