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January car sales plunge by 46.3 pct.
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Posted on Feb 03 2009
At least one new vehicle was sold on the islands every single day in January, compared to almost two sold daily during the same month last year.
This is based on the latest data from the Commonwealth Auto Dealers’ Association, which showed 36 new vehicles sold in January, a 46.27 percent drop from the 67 units sold last year in the same period.
Matt Deets, CADA president, said yesterday the 46 percent drop in monthly sales shows the many changes that have occurred since early 2008 as a result of an economic downtrend not only in the CNMI but in the U.S. mainland as well.
He, however, pointed out that the 36 new vehicles sold in January were consistent with the sales of the preceding months: 37 in December, 22 in November, and 36 in October.
CADA, he said, does not project growth in vehicle sales this year.
Deets, who is also the general manager of Joeten Motors Corp., said the overall economic downtrend has been keeping the sale of new vehicles low.
“But one positive thing about it is that we [CADA] have been well adopted to the market for at least the last two years. We have streamlined operations, improved efficiency, closed all the gaps we could find and refined our processes for efficiency,” he added.
Microl Corp. sold 15 units of Toyota last month, a 46.43-percent drop in the year-ago sales of 28.
Triple “J” Motors saw a 52.17-percent drop in January sales—from 23 last year to 11 this year. Triple “J” is the local authorized distributor of new Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Suzuki and Mazda units.
Joeten Motors sold 10 new units of Nissan, Ford, Honda and Kia in January, a 37.5-percent drop from the year-ago sales of 16.
