Are auto sales picking up?

Subscribe to our RSS feed or get updates by Email for all the latest spy photos, videos, news and reviews!

While automakers are filing for bankruptcy and the industry is in the doldrums, surprisingly auto sales figures for May are better than those of April. Does this mean that there are signs of a revival?

Chrysler, which filed for bankruptcy, reported that even though auto sales were down by 47%, its May figures showed that 74,741 vehicles were sold in the month, the best sales in the year. Chrysler is planning to introduce zero percent financing on some of its models to entice more buyers.

Ford sold 161,531 vehicles in May, a figure which is 20% higher than April sales. Ford Fusion, Ford Flex and their hybrids had record sales in May. However, overall, Ford’s sales figures are 38.6% lower this year when compared to the same month last year. Ford will now have to make more vehicles because their inventories are lower. Ford Fusion did particularly well in May.

GM. too, reported 29.6 % loss in sales compared to figures of last year. However, because of GM’s widely publicized problems, their production figures were down as well as they produced only 53% of their normal output.

The American arm of Honda said sales fell 39.2% compared to May 2008 sales; however, like Chrysler it has reported the best sales in May because more people have been buying the fuel efficient cars that Honda is making. Overall Honda vehicle sales dropped 33.3% when juxtaposed against the previous year’s figures. However, Honda Civic (pictured below) had the worst sales in May.

Nissan reported a similar 33% drop in sales from last year. And once again it reported higher sales in May than April this year, sales rising as much as 43% compared to last month’s figures.

So even though all vehicle sales figures are down compared to last year’s, the month of May has shown more auto buyers than the previous month.