2004 June - A Disaster
Mitsubishi! > Cars > Sales > USA > 2004 > June Sales
Total Sales Down 46% (SUVs 42%, Cars 47%)
MMNA didn't say much. There was not even a single bright spot even though number of selling days was 25, one more than in June of 2003. Eclipse line is down and out, with about 60 percent decline in sales. Lancer sales are down by a large margin too. Galant, a vehicle it was trying to promote by comparing with Honda Accord and Toyota Camry got a thumbs down from the buying public, with sales cut into half compared to that of last year. Car sales were down by 47 percent.
In SUV arena, Montero line was almost flat. Endeavor, on which MMC had pinned its hopes, got a beating by sales falling by 55 percent. Total carnage indeed.
Normal plant production has to be brought down almost immediately to adjust for this worse than projected sales. With Normal plant running at a low capacity utilization, costs are bound to rise.
Source: Mitsubishi Motors America June Sales PR
Each row: Make, 2004 June unit sales, 2003 June sales, and percentage change.
ECLIPSE COUPE 890 2,690 -66.9%ECLIPSE SPYDER 468 1,084 -56.8%
LANCER 2,681 3,550 -24.5%
LANCER EVOLUTION 303 478 -36.6%
LANCER SPORTBACK 142 --
GALANT 3,290 6,820 -51.8%
DIAMANTE 108 394 -72.6%
TOTAL CAR 7,882 15,016 -47.5%
OUTLANDER 1,415 2,849 -50.3%
MONTERO SPORT 1,081 862 25.4%
ENDEAVOR 1,578 3,492 -54.8%
MONTERO 345 422 -18.2%
TOTAL SUV 4,419 7,625 -42.0%
TOTAL 12,301 22,641 -45.7%
Other Asian Automakers Excel
[Bloomberg]. Toyota sold a record 170,366 vehicles in June, compared with 155,501 a year earlier, on higher demand for Camry and Prius cars and Sienna minivans. Toyota's market share rose 1.3 percentage points to 11.8 percent.
Honda sold 116,101 vehicles last month, up from 110,290 a year earlier. Honda's June market share rose to 8 percent from 7.5 percent in the same month of 2003.
Nissan sold 78,107 vehicles, up from 68,799 in June 2003, Nissan's market share rose to 5.4 percent from 4.7 percent a year ago.
Hyundai Motor sold 41,336 vehicles in the U.S. in June, 18.8 percent more than a year ago. The gain was led by demand for Sonata and Elantra sedans and Santa Fe sport-utility vehicles. Hyundai's market share rose 0.5 percentage point last month to 2.9 percent.
Kia Motors, a Hyundai subsidiary, sold 27,636 cars and light trucks, a 36 percent increase. Higher sales of Optima and Rio small cars, Sedona minivans and the new Amanti sedan led the increase. Kia's market share rose 0.5 point to 1.9 percent.
Mazda, a third owned by Ford, sold 26,962 vehicles, 6.1 percent more than last year. The gain was led by demand for Mazda3 small cars, which has become the Hiroshima, Japan-based company's top-selling U.S. model. Mazda's market share was 1.9 percent, up from 1.7 percent.
Mitsubishi Motors's market share dropped from 1.5 percent to 0.8 percent.