US car sales boomed in August as $3 billion in government incentives drove sharp gains for Hyundai and Ford but failed to provide a boost for General Motors in its first full month outside bankruptcy.
Ford reported a 17 per cent jump in monthly sales today and the success of the US government's "cash for clunkers" trade-in incentives pushed overall industry sales to the first year-on-year increase in 21 months.
Korea's Hyundai posted a 47 per cent increase as sales of its Elantra sedan more than doubled.
The US government incentive program also helped Honda post a 10 per cent sales gain while Toyota sales were up 6 per cent.
The two US carmakers to have emerged from government-sponsored bankruptcies - GM and Chrysler - lost market share during the August sales bonanza.
GM sales dropped 20 per cent, while Chrysler was off 15 per cent. Nissan sales fell almost 3 per cent from record levels of a year earlier.
Meanwhile, auto sales rose in France and Italy and stabilized in Spain on the success of similar government-backed sales incentives, data released yesterday showed.
The now-exhausted US "clunkers" program, which was inspired by the programs in France and other European markets, drove a rush into dealerships in July and August.
More than 690,000 vehicles were scrapped in the United States for taxpayer-funded credits of up to $4,500 as consumers took advantage to drop gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs.
On an annualized basis, industry-wide US sales topped 14 million units, according to Autodata.
That was up from 13.6 million a year earlier but still far below the 16 million range that had been seen as the bottom for the market until 2007.
Reuters