Vehicle Sales

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Chrysler Corp., the No. 3 U.S. automaker, said yesterday that third-quarter profit rose a surprisingly strong 46 percent on sales of sport-utility vehicles in the last quarter before it was bought by Daimler-Benz AG.Net income jumped to $682 million, or $1.02 a share, from $466 million, or 69 cents a share before a charge in the year-earlier period. Chrysler was expected to earn 87 cents a share, the average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp.The shares rose 50 cents, or 6 percent, to $44.25 yesterday.

Maryland new car and truck dealers ended a three-month run of higher sales in August when vehicle deliveries dropped 10.3 percent below the corresponding period of the previous year, according to figures released yesterday by the Motor Vehicle Administration.The decline compared to a drop of 6.6 percent in vehicle sales for the entire U.S. industry, due primarily to the strike at General Motors Corp.Noting that auto sales in Maryland were strong in June and July, Peter Kitzmiller, president of the Maryland New Car and Truck Dealers Association, said that incentive programs offered by the manufacturers to boost sales in early summer took away some of the August business.

Maryland new car and truck dealers posted a second consecutive month of higher sales during July, according to figures released yesterday by the Motor Vehicle Administration.The nearly 2 percent increase in sales last month contrasted sharply with the 8.8 percent decline in U.S. car and light truck sales, due primarily to the strikes at General Motors Corp."I met with a lot of GM dealers last month and I was surprised at how many cars they had in inventory," said Peter Kitzmiller, who recently took over as president of the Maryland New Car and Truck Dealers Association.

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. car and truck sales fell 4.3 percent in July as lower car sales and a cutback in price discounts offset a modest increase in truck demand.The second-largest automaker said yesterday that truck sales were 5.2 percent higher than in the same period a year ago, at 214,235 vehicles, while car sales fell 17 percent to 128,948. Analysts had expected Ford's sales to be little changed.The results come in what is expected to be one of the year's slowest sales months, a result of the strikes at General Motors Corp.

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. yesterday reported higher May U.S. vehicle sales as price discounts and a strong economy raised expectations that industrywide sales had hit their strongest monthly pace of the 1990s.GM sales rose 13 percent and Ford's rose 2 percent from May 1997, both better than expected. Chrysler Corp. reported a 27 percent increase. Toyota Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. also rose, and industry sales were up 16 percent through yesterday.May's annual selling rate is expected to exceed December's 16.2 million, the highest since January 1990.

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford Motor Co. yesterday reported second-quarter profits that rose 44 percent, topping analysts' estimates and setting a record for any quarter by a U.S. automaker, on strong sales of its Expedition sport utility vehicle and big cost cuts.Ford's profit from operations rose to $2.43 billion, or $1.98 a fully diluted share, from $1.69 billion, or $1.39 a share, in the year-earlier period.Analysts had expected profit from operations of $1.83 a share, based on the average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by IBES International Inc. Ford shares fell, however, as its earnings fell short of analysts' recent word-of-mouth estimates of as much as $2.20 a share.

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. said yesterday that its U.S. vehicle sales fell 13 percent in June, continuing a pattern of lower demand industrywide because of strikes, competition from used-car sales, and tapped-out consumers.GM's decline from the same month a year ago was greater than expected. It follows Chrysler Corp.'s report earlier in the week that its sales fell 4 percent and Toyota Motor Corp.'s 2.3 percent decline.Industry sales this year to date are 1.9 percent below 1996 levels, despite larger incentives.

The spring new-car buying spree in Maryland continued last month as dealers enjoyed a nearly 6 percent jump in sales and posted their first back-to-back monthly gains in more than two years."

The traditional spring new-car buying spree, which has been absent in Maryland in recent years, showed signs of returning last month as dealers posted a 14.5 percent gain in vehicle sales."

For the nation as a whole, just about everyone agrees: New car sales are expected to be flat this year. In Maryland, though, the outlook is not so clear.State dealers could follow the national pattern or break out of their long slump to post a healthy gain in vehicle sales."I'm optimistic about 1997," said Jacob J. Cohen, a partner and head of the automotive division at Walpert, Smullian & Blumenthal, a Towson accounting and management consulting company."I think sales will be up, along with the bottom-line profits of most dealers," said Cohen, whose company represents about a third of the state's 350 new car dealers.