8:51 PM
Risk Management
December car sales up
Toyota was the lone exception among the big automakers.
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More confident consumers led to higher sales in December for every major automaker with the exception of Toyota, which continued to be dogged by damage to its reputation from last year's recalls.
In addition, 2010 heralded a recovery for the U.S. auto industry as a whole. Sales in 2010 rose 11 percent to 11.6 million, marking the first rise for the industry since the recession kept buyers away from showrooms.
The year also saw some notable changes. The Ford Mustang lost the sports-car crown it has held for 24 years to GM's Chevy Camaro as the Camaro outsold the Mustang 81,299 to 73,716.
General Motors' monthly sales climbed 7.5 percent, while Ford Motor Co.'s sales rose 3.5 percent. Chrysler's sales surged 16 percent, buoyed by the popularity of its Grand Cherokee.
By contrast, Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales fell 5.5 percent during the month, to 177,488 vehicles. Toyota is San Antonio's manufacturing kingpin, as its South Side plant produces Tundra and Tacoma trucks.
For all of 2010, Toyota's sales fell slightly compared with 2009, and it was replaced by Ford as the No. 2 carmaker in the U.S. Ford and every other major automaker posted annual gains. GM remained the top automaker with U.S. sales of 2.22 million, up 7 percent.
“The black clouds created by the recalls are still hampering Toyota's sales,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insight for the auto research website TrueCar.com. Toyota recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide last year, mostly because of problems related to sudden acceleration.
“If the recalls had happened 10 years ago and you were a loyal Toyota buyer, what would you have bought? A Chevy? You probably would've stuck with Toyota no matter what. But now competition has come a long way,” he said, noting that other carmakers have much stronger offerings.
Edmunds.com senior analyst Jessica Caldwell agreed, saying: “With other brands such as Hyundai, Kia and Buick gaining momentum, it's going to be hard for Toyota to regain its sales share with its old stable of products.”
But Toyota officials were upbeat in a conference call, saying they expect a stronger 2011 and 2012. “We're starting to see buyers return to the market,” said Bob Carter, group vice president for U.S. sales.
While sales of Toyota's made-in-San Antonio trucks — the full-size Tundra and the midsize Tacoma — didn't meet expectations, Carter said he expects sales of the trucks to rise in 2011 because of pent-up demand by those who need work trucks.
And, although Toyota officials said they believe the average U.S. gasoline price could rise to $4 a gallon this year, “we don't anticipate the consumer reaction to be quite as dramatic as in 2008,” Carter said.
“The trend is clear that the increase in gas prices didn't discourage people from buying large trucks and SUVs.”
For 2011, General Motors, Ford and Toyota predict sales will total 12.5 million to 13 million, but that's far from the industry peak of 17 million reached in the middle of the decade.
Don Esmond, senior vice president of Toyota's U.S. operations, said he expects U.S. auto sales to rise to 15 million or 16 million by the middle of the decade.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg contributed to this report.
In addition, 2010 heralded a recovery for the U.S. auto industry as a whole. Sales in 2010 rose 11 percent to 11.6 million, marking the first rise for the industry since the recession kept buyers away from showrooms.
The year also saw some notable changes. The Ford Mustang lost the sports-car crown it has held for 24 years to GM's Chevy Camaro as the Camaro outsold the Mustang 81,299 to 73,716.
General Motors' monthly sales climbed 7.5 percent, while Ford Motor Co.'s sales rose 3.5 percent. Chrysler's sales surged 16 percent, buoyed by the popularity of its Grand Cherokee.
By contrast, Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales fell 5.5 percent during the month, to 177,488 vehicles. Toyota is San Antonio's manufacturing kingpin, as its South Side plant produces Tundra and Tacoma trucks.
For all of 2010, Toyota's sales fell slightly compared with 2009, and it was replaced by Ford as the No. 2 carmaker in the U.S. Ford and every other major automaker posted annual gains. GM remained the top automaker with U.S. sales of 2.22 million, up 7 percent.
“The black clouds created by the recalls are still hampering Toyota's sales,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insight for the auto research website TrueCar.com. Toyota recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide last year, mostly because of problems related to sudden acceleration.
“If the recalls had happened 10 years ago and you were a loyal Toyota buyer, what would you have bought? A Chevy? You probably would've stuck with Toyota no matter what. But now competition has come a long way,” he said, noting that other carmakers have much stronger offerings.
Edmunds.com senior analyst Jessica Caldwell agreed, saying: “With other brands such as Hyundai, Kia and Buick gaining momentum, it's going to be hard for Toyota to regain its sales share with its old stable of products.”
But Toyota officials were upbeat in a conference call, saying they expect a stronger 2011 and 2012. “We're starting to see buyers return to the market,” said Bob Carter, group vice president for U.S. sales.
While sales of Toyota's made-in-San Antonio trucks — the full-size Tundra and the midsize Tacoma — didn't meet expectations, Carter said he expects sales of the trucks to rise in 2011 because of pent-up demand by those who need work trucks.
And, although Toyota officials said they believe the average U.S. gasoline price could rise to $4 a gallon this year, “we don't anticipate the consumer reaction to be quite as dramatic as in 2008,” Carter said.
“The trend is clear that the increase in gas prices didn't discourage people from buying large trucks and SUVs.”
For 2011, General Motors, Ford and Toyota predict sales will total 12.5 million to 13 million, but that's far from the industry peak of 17 million reached in the middle of the decade.
Don Esmond, senior vice president of Toyota's U.S. operations, said he expects U.S. auto sales to rise to 15 million or 16 million by the middle of the decade.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg contributed to this report.
Long, 29, is very happy with the arrangement and it appears he'll be a Porsche driver for the rest of his career after signing a multi-year contract extension this winter.
You can understand why Porsche would want to keep Long. This will be his ninth season with Porsche and he's delivered, with co-drivers, multiple wins and championships. He's won all the major endurance races: the 24-Hours at Le Mans (2004, '07) and Daytona ('09) and Sebring's 12-Hours (2005) in the GT class. Long and co-driver Joerg Bergmeister won their second straight American Le Mans Series GT title in 2010. Long has 20 ALMS GT victories and three in the Grand-American Series' Daytona Prototypes.
GT is sports car's production-based class. It has deep and competitive fields and it's where Porsche, wanting to sell the cars that it races, primarily invests its marketing dollars. But GT cars aren't contenders for overall wins against the prototypes, which have far superior horsepower and aerodynamics.
Long will have his chance to add an overall triumph in the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Jan. 29-30. It will be his fourth attempt in the premier Daytona Prototypes, driving a Porsche-powered Riley for Flying Lizard Motorsports.
"My goal is to win some of the races overall I've won in class," Long said. "Daytona would be one of the biggest boxes to check off. It would be right up there, my sweetest victory. I love that we're driving for the overall.
"I always thought racing in GT was most difficult, trying to keep pace and staying out of trouble with the prototypes and other traffic. The biggest difference isn't the competition. Once I got in the Daytona Prototype, life became more difficult. When you're in a prototype, you're the decision maker and you have to drive aggressively. You have to pick your holes, go four wide on the [Daytona] banking and make decisions quickly at high speed. You can make up a tremendous amount of ground in traffic when you're in a prototype."
Long will be driving the same car that carried Brumos Racing to the overall victory at Daytona in 2009 and with his regular co-driver, Bergmeister. They'll be joined by Johannes van Overbeek and Seth Nieman.
Flying Lizard doesn't compete in Grand-Am's prototypes on a regular basis and that will make it a challenge against those teams who do, like Chip Ganassi Racing, Gainsco Racing, Mike Shank Racing and Action Express Racing, which was the surprise winner at Daytona last year.
Ganassi has a driver lineup of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, last year's Grand-Am driving champions, joined by Graham Rahal and Joey Hand in one of its BMW-Rileys and Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti in the other. Gainsco has former series' champions Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty and five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
"I think with Porsche's flat-6 engine we've got a chance on the roval [combination road course and oval] against the Ganassis and Gainscos in Grand-Am," Long said. "The test we had went smoothly. We were competitive and problem-free from the time we put it out on the track. Hopefully, that's indicative of how things will go in January."
Long's best finish in a prototype in three previous races at Daytona was third in 2006 in a Porsche-Crawford for Alex Job Racing. He drove the same package in 2007 and 2008, having mechanical problems in both races. The Riley chassis has dominated Grand-Am in recent years and it will be an upgrade for Long and Flying Lizard to have it.
Flying Lizard's full-season series with Long and Bergmeister will be a third straight year in ALMS GT2 in a Porsche RSR. Long and Bergmeister have won championships in both seasons.
"The continuity of three years in a row with the same team in the same series is something I really value," Long said. "At this time last year, our backs were against the wall. We weren't going into the season as one of the favorites. I'm in a more positive perspective even though the competition will be even higher in 2011. The BMW and Corvette teams will be more refined and Ferrari has a new car, the 458.
"We fought tooth and nail to win the driver's championship last year. We never had the fastest lap times per se, but we had good strategy, fast pit stops, drive mistake free and were fast as drivers. Putting it all together won the championship. We have some substantial updates on our car, but it will be the same car we had last year and we need to have the same kind of season."
Long hopes to make his Sprint Cup debut at Infineon Raceway in June. He's won NASCAR's K & N West Series races on the road courses at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah in 2009 and Portland International Raceway in 2010. Long made his Nationwide debut at Road America last summer, qualifying seventh in a D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports Toyota and finishing 14th after a late-race crash with Brad Keselowski.
"All day, we ran fifth and sixth and under a caution, a bunch of cars dove into the pits and we took the lead [laps 28-29 of 50]," Long said. "We bet against them and our strategy was the right one. We were saving our tires, but with about 15 laps to go, I was surprised to see some of the stuff I was seeing, short track stuff at 170 miles per hour on a road course. I got in a tangle with Keselowski.
"I had a couple of interesting phone calls after Road America. Some people asked me if I was available for road courses. I've looked at it and it works out scheduling wise for Infineon [June 24-26]. My goal is to be in the Cup race at Infineon. I need to get clearance from Porsche. I'd like to think Porsche will be OK with me doing it. If it happens in 2011, great. They've allowed me to go out and race on free weekends and it's a lot of fun. It's part of the great fit with Porsche."
Long is a world-class talent, one of the best Americans driving a race car.
But he's sometimes overlooked in a group that would include Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Ryan Hunter-Reay because he races with a co-driver and in sports cars, a niche form of motor racing in the U.S. Porsche searches everywhere for drivers of Long's ability and he's the only American under contract, with it for nearly a decade.
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