Several Orange County-based automakers saw a gain in July sales as consumers were lured to dealerships by the government’s cash for clunkers program.
Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America, sister company of Kia Motors America Inc. of Irvine and Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc., posted positive sales numbers last month.
Hyundai, part of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., saw a 12% gain in vehicle sales last month from a year earlier.
Hyundai, the largest automaker with operations here, sold 45,553 vehicles last month.
The automaker said that year-to-date sales were down 8%.
Hyundai is in line to pass Michigan-based Chrysler Group LLC and Japan’s Nissan Motor Corp. in sales for the first time in its history, if sales continue at current levels, according to some reports.
Kia, also part of Seoul-based Hyundai, was up 9% from a year earlier with 29,345 vehicles sold last month.
About 29% of the July sales were made up of its midsized sports utility vehicle Soul and compact Forte models, according to Kia.
Overall the Korean automaker is down 4% in total vehicle sales for the year from a year earlier.
Mitsubishi, part of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp., was up 11% with 4,487 vehicles sold last month.
The automaker’s overall sales year-to-date declined 58% compared to the same month a year earlier.
The smaller Japanese automaker saw showroom traffic rise sharply in July as consumers looked to take advantage of the U.S. government’s cash for clunkers program, which promised a federal rebate of up to $4,500 for trading in cars with poor gas mileage for new cars with better mpg.
The program was approved in July by Congress, but is likely to end soon as buyers deplete the allocated $3 billion.
Mitsubishi wasn’t the only dealer to see an increase in potential buyers, but that didn’t translate into sales for everyone.
Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations saw sales decline 15% to 19,032 vehicles sold in July, but a marked increase in showroom traffic thanks to the government program.
Mazda, part of Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp., said sales were down 32% to date with 119,413 vehicles sold compared to the same time in 2008.
Brea-based American Suzuki Motor Corp. said its July sales declined 57% to 3,507 vehicles from 8,103 vehicles last year.
American Suzuki, part of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp., has been hit hard by the auto slump with sales to date down 60% to 25,915 vehicles versus the 64,350 vehicles sold at this time last year.
