Isle auto sales ‘junk’

Car sales were down
and truck sales were flat in the
third quarter, a dealer survey finds

By Russ Lynch

Star-Bulletin

Retail automobile sales in Hawaii remained stalled in the third quarter, with new car purchases down and new truck sales flat, according to a new report.

Overall retail auto sales in Hawaii were down 2.7 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, according to the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association's latest figures. The 1996 quarter had shown a decline from 1995's third quarter, too, so the latest three-months figure represents a continuation of slow sales that have dogged local auto dealers most of this decade.

But with new U.S.-built vehicles up slightly, some dealers apparently did well in spite of the overall sluggishness of the new-car market.

"I don't look at the other guys," said Hank Baack, general manager of Cutter Dodge Inc. on Dillingham Boulevard. "To me, this is the best year I've ever had."

Mike McKenna, who sells domestic and foreign brands at his Windward Ford and Windward Volkswagen and Mazda operations in Kailua, said consumers are still cautious.

"I think the average buyer is just gun-shy right now," McKenna said. In the brands he handles, Mazda is off somewhat, Volkswagen is up and Ford is about even, he said.

"I think it's the state of the economy," he said.

McKenna said continuing headlines about the poor state of the economy haven't helped and last week's stock market plunge added a new negative impact.

"Before the stock market crash I had 15 or 16 orders. We probably lost about half of them," he said.

The HADA figures, prepared for the association by Nissan Motor Corp. in Hawaii, show that compared with the third quarter of 1996, sales of U.S. cars in Hawaii in the latest quarter were up just 0.7 percent.

Sales of U.S.-built trucks, however, were up 9.3 percent in the quarter-to-quarter comparison, for a total lift in domestic models of 2.8 percent.

Sales of imported cars, which have nearly 55 percent of the car market in the islands, were down 6.3 percent compared with the 1996 quarter.

And imported trucks, occupying 28 percent of the Hawaii truck market, were down 12.1 percent. Sales of all new imported vehicles were down 7.1 percent.

The end result was a 2.7 percent decline in retail sales of new cars and trucks of all makes in the latest quarter, compared with the 1996 period.

For the first nine months of the year, automobile sales were virtually flat, showing a decline of 0.1 percent.