US Saab Sales - January 2008
It’s time for US sales data and the slide in Saab sales continues in the US market. Actually, it’s more like an avalanche…
Saab sales in January 2008 totalled 1,772 units, which represents a 25% decline from last January last year.
Sales for each model variant were down, as follows:
Saab 9-3 - There were 1,167 units sold in January, down from 1,465 last year. That’s a fall of 20.9%
Saab 9-5 - There were 199 units sold in January, down from 375 last year. That’s a fall of 46.9%
Saab 9-7x - There were 406 units sold in January, down from 477 last year. That’s a fall of 14.9%
——
Well, that’s a train wreck in anyone’s language. We all know it’ll be a tough year in the US, but 25% tough? FYI, GM’s sales in total were up 2.3% this month.
It seems that the current economic problems in the US, combined with the people’s love for incentives, which aren’t there, is bringing out a natural and real sales level for Saab in the US.
I can cope with that. Something real to build from, perhaps. I can’t help but think that people are holding out for the XWD option, too.
It seems there’s some good advertising starting to come through. Ted Y spotted this one on the web and it’s something that no-one’s sent through before, so maybe safety’s on the agenda…..
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Just saw the data myself. Saab is the worst division…
Saab: -25%
Hummer: -23%
Pontiac: -4%
Chevrolet: +1%
Buick: +6%
Cadillac: +8%
Saturn: +12%
After seeing the latest Autoline article I wonder if there is any reporting on “Certified Used” Saabs?
They say that fewer Americans are buying new cars and GM “Certified” used cars of all brands sell more than each individual division except Chevy.
TimJ#2: a good point. I know most of the people in my immediate family would consider buying a new car out of the question. Not that they don’t have the money to do so, but we figure that we’ll let someone else take that depreciation hit from driving the new car off the dealer lot.
We can benefit from those people who feel they need a new car every year. My mom bought a 2006 Acura TL in 2007 for much cheaper than a new 2007 model would have cost. The difference between the two models was minimal. The car she got was “like new” and had been driven by the dealer’s manager since it was new so it was well cared-for.
Seriously, even if I had the money to buy a new Saab I’d probably buy a 2005 9-5 Aero Combi. The added benefit is I like the pre-2006 front end better anyway. Even with the big incentives being offered on “new” 2007 9-5s one could pick up a 2005 at a fraction of the cost and with the CPO warranty, it’s good for a couple years so you’re safe from any immediate problems.
Buying a brand new car must be a thrill, but is a waste of money, IMHO.
Well, on the bright side my man Phil LeBeau on CNBC just reported that GM was up 2.6% last month over last year. Chevy Malibu and Cadillac CTS are leading the way - you just gotta have new product if you expect to move metal in this market. The 9-3 makeover is nice, but it is not really a new car. The 9-5 and 9-7 are basically carryover so Saab really does not have a lot to draw new buyers in the showroom in this difficult market.
He also made a point to highlight that Toyota was down 2.3% and more importantly – their flagship Lexus division took a 8.2% hit which he felt was very significant. Are some of those Lexus drivers going over to Cadillac?
Let’s face it – every time you turn on the news here in the USA you hear how bad the economy is, jobs are scarce etc. It has got to make people think twice about making a major purchase like that. Things most certainly ‘sound’ worse than they really are in my opinion.
Brutal numbers.
And the 9-7x outsold the 9-5 by more than 2-to-1. Anyone wonder where SaabUSA and the US Saab dealerships would be without the 9-7x?
1985 Gripen,
*If* I were looking to replace my 9000 Aero, I’d be looking for a 2004-2005 9-5 Aero Combi with a stick. For the same reasons as you, too. Glacial Blue, anyone?
(If only it was a manual…:
http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/class/photos/4636/1.jpg
Cheers!
~Peter
Tedjs: I agree the threat of a recession should hurt new auto sales, but apparently BMW isn’t too worried. They’re expecting greater sales this year than last!
If potential Saab buyers are holding-out for XWD then there should be a HUGE surge of 9-3 sales in around April or May, right? We’ll see. I have the feeling that a lot of folks who were waiting for XWD will just hold-out for the full XWD w/ eLSD when the ‘09 9-3 Aero goes on sale in Fall. So hopefully at the end of this calendar year sales will start improving. That’s little comfort for Saab dealers until then, though.
–3:31P Mazda U.S. January sales climbed 10.2% (MZDAF)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Mazda Motor Corp. said Friday its U.S. January sales rose 10.2% to 21,212 vehicles. Up 27% were sales of the Japanese automaker’s MAZDA6 car, while sales of its crossover vehicle MAZDA5 rose 28.4%.
–3:30P Hyundai Jan U.S. sales fall 22.6% to 21,452 vehicles (HYMLF)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hyundai Motor Co. said Friday that U.S. January sales fell 22.6% to 21,452 vehicles from 27,721 in the year-ago period. Hyundai’s best selling models took a hit with Sonata sales falling 37% to 4,587 vehicles, and Elantra sales dropping 11.7% to 5,615 units in January.
–2:14P Volvo U.S. sales total 8,036 units in January vs 7,819 units (VOLV)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Volvo Cars of North America said Friday its U.S. sales totaled 8,036 compared with 7,819 in January 2007. Sales of S60 model led the gains with double digit growth while XC70 also sold well, according to Volvo. The company noted that 2007 data include sales for Puerto Rico while 2008 numbers do not.
–1:59P GM U.S. light vehicle sales rise to 250,926 units in Jan (GM)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — General Motors Corp. said Friday January light vehicle sales rose 2.6% to 250,926 from 244,614 a year earlier. The Detroit automaker said total car sales rose 0.2% to 104,374 and total truck sales rose 3.4% to 148,191. Light-truck sales were up 4.3% to 146,552 vehicles from 140,458 a year ago. GM North America said January production fell 5% to 297,000 from 313,000 a year ago. The company raised its first-quarter forecast to 965,000 vehicles from 950,000, consisting of 357,000 cars and 608,000 trucks. Shares in GM rose 1.2%, or 32 cents, to $28.53 in afternoon trading.
–1:46P Audi Jan. U.S. sales increase 0.3% to 6,418 vehicles (DE:766400)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Audi, a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG , said Friday that January U.S. sales increased 0.3% to 6,418 vehicles from a year ago. The company saw its largest percentage sales gain in the A6/S6 model, which gained 9.1% for 983 vehicles in January. U.S. sales of the company’s Q7 model dropped 26.1% in January to 1,209 vehicles compared to a year ago.
–1:07P Honda Jan. U.S. sales fall 2.3% to 98,511 vehicles (HMC)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Honda Motor Co. said Friday that January U.S. sales fell 2.3% to 98,511 vehicles from 100,790 a year ago. The auto maker said U.S. January passenger car sales increased to 55,345 units from 53,412 a year ago, while truck sales fell to 43,166 from 47,378 last year.
–12:19P Ford January sales slip 4% on fewer light vehicles (F)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Ford Motor Co. said Friday that U.S. sales of light vehicles fell to 159,276 from 165,657, while total sales, including Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo, lost 4% to 159,914. The Dearborn, Mich. automaker tried to paint a bright picture, however, focusing on sales of its newer crossover vehicles. January sales for the Ford Edge were up 95% and Lincoln MKX sales rose 78% from last year. Sales of crossovers, a smaller sport-utility vehicle that isn’t designed to go off road, began sales in 2006.
–12:10P Volkswagen U.S. sales fall to 14,411 units in January (DE:766400)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Volkswagen of America Inc. said Friday its U.S. sales in January fell to 14,411 units from 16,610 vehicles a year earlier. Sales of the GTI slumped to 833 units last month compared with 1,351 units in January 2007.
Any way to find out what the sales numbers are on 2007 vs 2008 9-3s sold?
Gripen: I hate to say this, but one of the primary reason I waited until August to pick up my 2007 SportCombi was rebates. After I saw the unbelievable rebates on the 2006 model I took a gamble that paid off by waiting for the GM rebate machine to kick in. Don’t get me wrong – I was going to get the car one way or another, but I had a perfectly good running car prior to my Saab purchase so I was holding all the cards in that case and waiting to see what GM put on the table. Combine that with other incentives I got – and it was just a great deal on a new car.
Smart buyers may be waiting for GM to do something similar this year given the 2009 model will have XWD available on it etc.
January seems like a good time to buy a car since most people think dealers have nothing else to do but March and April were always good sales months for the dealers as they have little incentives right now to move vehicles. Plus – most of the USA was in a deep freeze for the last couple weeks of January. Who wants to test drive a new car when it is blistering cold outside? Malibu owners I guess.
From Vtec.net:
The Acura Division posted a sales volume of 11,168, a decrease of 14.2 percent compared to January 2007.
Another premium brand that’s doing poorly.
Everyone (including me) said that the new 9-3 would mean a big sales boost for Saab, and it didn’t. Now, people are saying that XWD will be a big sales boost.
…I hate to ask this, but is it possible that nothing will mean a big sales boost for Saab, because no one outside of the Saab/Eurocar faithful pays any attention to anything they do?
I mean…I can imagine that the 9-4x and 9-1 will boost sales because they’re new models (though 9-4x sales might be offset by less 9-7x sales) and all gains would be positive, but still…if the numbers don’t improve after March, I’m going to be worried.
How can one cite economic “issues” when the overall trend for cars is stable or slight uptick? Those slips are due to competition eating Saab’s lunch.
Ditto Hyundai, but I could have predicted that with the currency exchange rate taking away their only selling platform: price.
Jeff: Saab won’t have anything “new” until the Turbo-X in April, it looks like now.
Then shortly thereafter (we have no idea how shortly thereafter) they’ll offer the MY2008.5 9-3 Aero w/XWD for a few months until the MY2009 9-3 Aero w/XWD & standard eLSD goes on sale.
The 2.0T 9-3 is supposed to also get XWD available as an option in the ‘09 model-year.
Then there’s nothing new until the 2.0T 9-3 BioPower is introduced (in the U.S.) sometime early in calendar year 2009.
It won’t be until July 2009 before Saab gets a truly “new” model. That’s asking dealers to wait an awfully long time, IMHO.
So I have the feeling your worry deadline of March is going to come and go before Saab sales pick up.
Gripen - Well, my point was, people keep saying that “Oh, people are waiting for XWD to come out, and that’s why sales are slow,” but that’s what many were saying last September: “Oh, people are just waiting for the 2008’s, that’s why sales are slow.”
Ohhhhhhhhh, I get it. I didn’t mean March, really, I don’t know why I said that, replace “March” with “Whenever XWD is available”. I think it was a Freudian slip, since I’d just read Tedjs’s comment, and he said March is usually a good sales month, so it was in my head.
My point is, if sales don’t pick up after XWD is out on non-Turbo X’s, I’m going to be worried that they won’t pick up until mid-09, when new models will be around. That really is a long time to be in a slump, but I guess Steve Shannon knows all about that, coming from Buick.
Jeff, you hit the nail on the head. Saab has taken far too long bringing out the XWD to market, the 9-4X was a bit of a yawn and I am beginning to feel the 9-1 isnt going to create much excitement either.
On the bright side, those ‘more popular brands’ aka Acura, lexus et al are also losing ground which says more about the US market than the actual car makers themselves.
Zippy: we could take consolation in that except that it isn’t necessarily true. While it is true that Lexus and Acura are down, Saab’s more direct competitors BMW, Audi, and ovloV were all UP. See denvernewbie’s comment above.
It’s very easy to pawn-off responsibility for poor sales on a down market, but what’s Saab’s excuse for 2007? How about 2006? They keep saying that exciting new product will help sales but I don’t see that exciting new product coming until July 2009, if you count the 9-4X as “exciting”.
Saab should have predicted the situation they’re in now back in 2003 at the latest. It’s now five years later and we’re all still… waiting.
I’m glad you setup the Donate link, Swade. It’s nice to be able to support your efforts!
(Oops. Posted in the wrong thread. So sorry.)
“1985 Gripen // Feb 2, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Zippy: we could take consolation in that except that it isn’t necessarily true. While it is true that Lexus and Acura are down, Saab’s more direct competitors BMW, Audi, and ovloV were all UP. See denvernewbie’s comment above.
It’s very easy to pawn-off responsibility for poor sales on a down market, but what’s Saab’s excuse for 2007? How about 2006? They keep saying that exciting new product will help sales but I don’t see that exciting new product coming until July 2009, if you count the 9-4X as “exciting”.
Saab should have predicted the situation they’re in now back in 2003 at the latest. It’s now five years later and we’re all still… waiting.”
I think the thing that really hurt saab was GM killing the 9-5 replacement that was due in ~2004. That car (which would have shared it’s platform with the alfa romeo 155 and brera fyi) would have been awd-capable from the getgo and would have drawn more attention to the brand just when the novelty of the 9-3ss was wearing off. At the very least, we’d have a 9-5 today that’s much more competitive than the current one is.
I’m also going to go out on a limb here and say that completely botching the 9-2x really hurt saab. Subaru makes wonderfully sporty and quirky cars, and their obsession with unusual engines and drivetrain layouts not to mention turbo 4’s pretty much makes them the japanese saab for all I’m concerned.
I was looking at a 9-2x aero the other day and noticing how great the front end looked. GM should have given saab a sedan version of the 9-2x as well as the wagon they were given. They also could have shelled out the dough to give the 9-2x a saab specific interior. I seriously wonder what was going through their heads when they decided to limit the 9-2x to a wagon when sedans outsell wagons by almost 10:1 in the US. Seriously, what gives?
As much as I think that the 9-7x is an abomination that needs to be quickly forgotten, it’s relative sales success proves that buyers can warm up to a badge-engineered saab.
Imagine how many more buyers might have warmed up to a 9-2x sedan with a back end that looks as good as the front end did, with an interior that feels like it belongs in a saab.
The problem with the auto industry is that the 2-3 year pipeline for a new model to go from a brainstorm to the dealer lots can be unforgiving to a company with a small lineup like saab’s. I think that the sales slumps that we’ve seen for 2006, 2007, and now 2008 are the result of poor decisions that GM made back in 2002-2004 when they axed the replacement 9-5, the raised awd 9-3 combi, and limited the 9-2x to a wagon.
It seems like GM decided that saab needed a drastic new look around ~2006 when they threw together the Aero X, and that’s when the 9-3 facelift, xwd, the new 9-5, the 9-1, and the 9-4x all hit the drawing board. The problem is that it takes 3+ years for those models to hit the dealerships and I don’t think we’ll see record sales for saab again until at least 2010 when the dealerships can sell 9-1’s, 9-3’s, 9-5’s, and 9-4x’s.
Alex - The decision to make the 9-2x wagon-only probably made a lot more sense before there was a 9-3SC.
The idea behind the 9-2X was twofold: give Saabers what they had been screaming about for years in AWD and enter into the entry-level “hot hatch” market.
Because GM didn’t make the 9-2X, I suspect that if they had installed a Saab-specific interior in it, add that to the cost they had to buy them from Fuji Heavy Industries for, and you end up with something that costs much more than what they could sell it for. Remember, it was basically competing with the Subaru WRX everyone knew it was a twin of.
As for why no sedan version: they wanted a hot hatch for the younger demographic. Saab wanted to target buyers in their late twenties to early thirties with a more affordable offering which caters to active outdoorsy people. As it is I think most Saab buyers are in their late thirties to late forties.
It wasn’t a bad idea, it wasn’t a bad car. I just wish that instead of badge engineering a WRX Saab could have partnered with Subaru to combine their turbo expertise and Subaru’s AWD expertise into a killer car. That 9-6X/Tribeca mini-van thing was NOT the car I wanted see come from a Saab/Subaru partnership. Great opportunity wasted.
Gripen - on BMW et al. here’s another quote from Autoline:
“The people who are left in the new car market have higher incomes. They’re spending more money on more expensive cars. This is a key reason why the luxury segment has grown so much in the last decade and why so many automakers want to move their brands upscale. And it’s yet another reason why brands aimed at the middle class-especially Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge-have been losing market share.
The writing on the wall is that the market is slowing because a lot of middle income people are either putting all of their income into their adjustable mortgage payment that just quadrupled, or they just ruined their credit rating with a foreclosure. The Haves still have and the Have Nots have less. It’s not pretty today, but IMO consolidating Saab with other brands will help those dealers weather this downturn (as long as each brand gets proper representation).
On the topic of used 9-5 Combis - if you are still looking, the dealer in Sonoma that specializes in off-lease Saabs and Subarus currently lists four ‘04 9-5 Combis in their inventory (and seven 9-2Xs?) Family Motors
Let’s face it… It has nothing to do with hatch or XWD or Diesel or anything… It has to do with the fact that Saab has two outdated models and one hatch job. When people but a new car, they want their neighbors to see that it’s new. It may be really good in every way, but people still want to everybody else to see that they have a new car. And that mean all those small things that show that the car is of a new design. That is how the market works.
I don’t mean that the 9-3 or 9-5 are bad, but to the general car buying public (and we are not a part of it) they are old cars. And to make things worse, they are cars from a small foreign brand.
Just imagine that Audi had an A6 from 98 and an A4 from 02 and a rebadged SUV from some other brand, and that’s it. Anyone think they would sell 6.000 cars in January? No way…
No new product in 6 years, No real new product coming (a few 9-3 turboX don’t count) bodes disaster for the US market where Saab’s competitors have been busy introducing new, new new products while Saab is still selling the Cadillac Catera er…I mean 9-5 or the Trailblazer er…I mean 9-7X or the Old Malibu er..I mean the 9-3. Thanks GM! You are a real brand builder….. Where is our new Subaru? Get real GM is not committed to Saab if they were you would know about or have seen a new 9-5……I mean the top of the line car in our line-up is only 11 years old and probably will be able to vote before it gets replaced…
I also think they should take the hit and dont introduce incentives in a big way now.
So people stop expecting them…
Saab will have very small sales for two years now I guess. Just hope that GM can hold on and keep develope the new cars. They most also put money down to develope the replacement…
If saab isnt on green then, then they have lost their place.
Canadian sales. Similar to US. Market up by 12%, but saab down. Now smaller than smart and porsche. GM up thou. Shows what new models can do for the lineup.
http://www.desrosiers.ca/pdfs/sales.pdf
There are not many of us who will run out and buy a 9-3 when we know that XWD and direct injection (and a new vehicle) are not too far away. The 9-5 is so old it basically sells on incentives only. Those who might be interested in such a car will wait for the new car. The 9-7 is an old platform as well and looks to GM. Many of those interested in an SUV / Crossover will wait for the 9-4. Traditional Saab buyers, such as myself, will be waiting for a well styled efficient vehicle with hatchback, strong performance, good gas mileage and potentially XWD (9-1).
They’ve got a 10 year old flagship, a sedan that is not differentiated enough (no hatchback) with an old powertrain, a “me too” GM SUV and nothing in the entry segment (but a market memory of the abortion that was the 9-2) and sales we are shocked to find sales are sliding?
Personally, I could consider buying any of the new cars (next gen 9-3 and 9-5, the 9-4 or the 9-1). But there is no reason to buy the current vehicles new when you can get what is essentially the same thing now much cheaper on the used market. I’ll be sticking with my 900 for now as it’s only got 260,000 miles on it (and its got a hatch and window controls in the center).