A running theme here has been the great rotation of bubble-blowing credit from subprime housing to subprime auto-loans. Amid government probes of underwriting standards [8] and soaring delinquencies [9], it appears when the least-creditworthy Americans are cut off from debt servitude, bad things happen in car sales...
- *FORD FEB. U.S. LIGHT-VEHICLE SALES FALL 2.0%, EST. UP 5.8% (miss!)
- *GM FEB. U.S. AUTO SALES UP 4.2%, EST. UP 5.9% (miss!)
- *NISSAN FEB. U.S. AUTO SALES UP 2.7%, EST. UP 3.8% (miss!)
- *FIAT CHRYSLER FEB. U.S. AUTO SALES UP 5.6%, EST. UP 8.2% (miss!)
- *HONDA FEB. U.S. AUTO SALES RISE 5%, EST. UP 11% (miss!)
- *TOYOTA FEB. U.S. AUTO SALES RISE 13.3%, EST. UP 15%( miss!)
Of course, the real blame - as we will be told - is the weather... It seems Obama's new American Dream of a brand new Ford or GM (or Maserati) in every driveway may be another broken promise [10].
- *FORD SAYS WEAK TEXAS SALES MAY HAVE BEEN WEATHER RELATED
So did the analysts that forecast sales not know that there was weather? not know the seasonals in fleet sales?
This won't end well...
[11]
as the delinquencies are already surging...
[12]
The details are even worse:
- *FORD FEB. U.S. F-SERIES SALES DOWN 1.2%
- *FORD FEB. U.S. ESCAPE SALES DOWN 9.6%
- *FORD FEB. U.S. FUSION SALES DOWN 4.9%
- *JAGUAR LAND ROVER CEO SEES 2015/2016 PROFIT MARGIN DECLINING
This really should not be a total surprise as auto sales have fallen and missed for 3 months in a row... to 10-month lows
[13]
This is the biggest 3 month drop since June 2011 and on par with the drop into Lehman...
[14]
- *AUTODATA: FEB. LIGHT VEHICLE SAAR 16.23M UNITS, EST. 16.6M
Even Phil LeBeau could only muster "lacklustre" as a response to this data...
But finally...
- *LAMBORGHINI CEO SEES HIGHER SALES IN 2015 THAN 2014
We leave you with this...
Sergio Marchionne, chief executive officer of Fiat Chrysler, said in an interview. “Full employment, low interest rates, stock prices up. It’s like dreamland.”
