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US automakers record their best month of sales this year as Big Three crush expectations
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
US automakers in September recorded their best month of sales in 2017, partly boosted by buyers replacing vehicles that were salvaged by Hurricane Harvey.
Sales rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 18.57 million units according to Autodata, the first year-on-year increase in 2017 that topped analysts' forecast for 17.4 million units.
The Detroit Big Three — Ford, GM, and Fiat Chrysler — topped forecasts for the month. Fiat Chrysler reported a decline that was less than expected.
Here's the scoreboard:
Ford: 8.9% (2.3% expected)
Fiat Chrysler: -9.7% (-13% expected)
GM: 11.9% (7.9% expected)
Toyota: 14.9%
Nissan: 9.5% (-8.7% expected)
Honda: 6.8% (1.5% expected)
Mercedes-Benz: -1.7%
Sales rose less than forecast last month as Hurricane Harvey roiled Texas. But they'd already slowed during 2017 after setting records in the previous seven years.
Analysts, however, saw improvement in the final quarter of the year. For one, several cars that were salvaged by the hurricanes will be replaced, and that should boost sales numbers after the initial slowdown.
"We don't buy the idea that the vehicles sales would have kept falling absent the likely post-hurricane rebound," Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a preview. "In our view, the decline in sales this year is mostly a consequence of the unsustainable surge late last year, when a huge wave of incentive spending, led by Ford, drove sales up to a peak of 18.2M in December."
(Pantheon Macroeconomics)
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