Americans Are Buying Cheaper Cars

Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. notched big US sales gains and General Motors Co. grew retail deliveries to start the year as demand for lower-priced models help automakers defy expectations for a broad slowdown.

Toyota said Tuesday that deliveries rose more than 20% in the first quarter, buoyed by the compact Corolla sedan and RAV4 crossover. Honda’s CR-V crossover and Civic compact drove the Japanese automaker to a 17% sales increase. GM reported a 1.5% drop in units sold during the quarter due to lower purchases by corporate fleets, but increased sales at retail by 6% with its Chevrolet Trax compact showing the biggest gain.

The early results underscored the importance of affordability for car buyers after pandemic-driven shortages and high interest rates drove up costs in recent years. The pricing bonanza that juiced automaker profits during the pandemic is fading as production normalizes. Now that inventories are rising, car companies are doling out more incentives and prices are starting to slip.

Budget cars and compact SUVs made eye-popping share gains in the first quarter, with sedan growth matching SUVs at Toyota. Large pickup trucks – one of the industry’s priciest segments – lost ground in January and February, according to researcher GlobalData. Several brands, including Jeep, Tesla and Ford, reduced prices to win back inflation-weary consumers and spur demand in the sluggish electric vehicle market.

“I’m surprised about how resilient the market has been,” said David Oakley, an analyst with GlobalData. “Affordability is a massive issue for the industry, and it will be going forward. But right now it seems they’re weathering the storm, and people are somehow making it work.”

GM said sales of its large and pricey SUVs, including the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon, tumbled. Meanwhile, purchases of its new Chevy Trax, a compact SUV with a starting selling price of just $20,400, jumped almost six fold as part of the company’s push into affordable vehicles.

The company is seeing slow progress on solving production problems in its electric-vehicle battery operations that make the company’s new Ultium battery pack. While the volume is still relatively small, GM had its best quarter with the new-generation of EVs, selling 5,800 of the Cadillac Lyriq and 1,668 electric Hummer trucks.

The industry’s yearly sales pace, known as the seasonally adjusted annual rate, rose to about 15.8 million in March, up from 14.9 million a year ago, according to the average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The 3.8 million vehicles sold in the first quarter mark a 6% increase from a year ago, but a 3.1% drop from the final quarter of 2023, Edmunds said.

Many major automakers are expected to release US sales figures Tuesday, while Tesla Inc. reported global results early in the day. Ford Motor Co. will release the data on Wednesday.

Toyota on Tuesday reported US new vehicle sales of 565,098 in the quarter, with higher growth coming from its namesake brand compared to the luxury Lexus line. The company was boosted by a nearly 40% gain in Corolla sales. RAV4 sales were up nearly 50%.

Kia America’s sales slipped 2.5% in the three-month period despite a 10% increase in sales of its compact Forte car. Hyundai Motor Co.’s US sales were roughly flat in the quarter.

Consumers seem to be cooling to fully electric vehicles due to a lack of charging infrastructure and high prices. While EV sales rose from a year ago, volume in the first quarter likely declined sequentially for the first time since early in the pandemic, according to researcher Cox Automotive. Meanwhile, sales of hybrid vehicles, which offer good fuel economy and sticker prices that are closer to their gas-powered siblings, are growing.

Steve Gates, a dealer who owns ten stores across Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana, said sales in the first quarter were better than he expected considering affordability is still weighing on shoppers. That’s especially true for hybrids. In a sign of the financial strain on consumers, he can’t acquire enough used cars to meet demand from shoppers who’ve been priced out of new models.

“The demand is still there,” said Gates, who sells several brands, including Toyota, Lexus and Ford. With just the plug-in version of Toyota’s RAV4, “I could make a living if I could just get those things and nothing else.”

Top photo: A worker walks through the lot of Paragon Honda and Acura car dealership in the Queens borough of New York, U.S., on Thursday, July 15, 2021. Soaring used-car prices accounted for more than one-third of the recent increase in the consumer price index, which in June rose at the fastest rate in 13 years. Photographer: Bess Adler/Bloomberg.