For the year through September, Lexus is leading the luxury pack in Orange County, according to the Orange County Auto Dealers’ third-quarter report.
Lexus had 8,027 registrations, followed by Mercedes with 7,479 and BMW with 6,607. More telling, Lexus and BMW registrations are up 6.3% and 3.1%, respectively. Mercedes is down 8.3%.
Overall, new auto registrations dropped 15.3% for the third quarter.
For the year through September, registrations fell nearly 10%, about 2% more than Los Angeles and 7% more than registrations in the U.S.
Registrations are seen as a barometer of sales. They don’t account for autos purchased at OC dealers by people outside the county, which is a slim part of the market for most dealers.
The association is forecasting an 8% decline for this year and a 1.7% dip for next year. The new auto buying market should look better in 2009 and 2010, when increases of 8.8% and 8.9%, respectively, are predicted. Pent-up buyer demand for new cars and lower interest rates may help drive consumers back to the dealerships.
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Pinkberry: store to appear in Fashion Island, City Place |
The auto report says high consumer debt,thanks to the subprime mortgage market and its fallout,is to blame for the dip.
Toyota lost some market share to Honda, quarter-over-quarter. Honda gained 2% to 13.2% market share. Toyota still had the largest share of the OC market with 24%. Ford is the third top brand in OC, with nearly 8% market share.
Toyota has a hit with its entry level Yaris, which has about 44% of the market, followed by the Nissan Versa, the Honda Fit, Scion XA and the Hyundai Accent.
In the near-luxury category, the BMW 3-Series had 27.2% of the market for the third quarter, followed by the Lexus IS, the Lexus ES, Mercedes C-Class and Infiniti G.
Mercedes E-Class ruled the luxury sector, followed by the BMW 5-Series, the Mercedes S-Class, the Lexus LS and the Mercedes CLK.
Brands predicted to grow next year: Audi, Cadillac, Honda, Nissan and Volvo.
The segment with the biggest gain in OC is the compact SUV. The midsize SUV had the second-biggest gains, while the full-size SUV was the biggest decliner.
The top-selling auto in OC is the Toyota Camry, which had 8,919 registrations for the first nine months of this year. The Camry was followed by the Toyota Corolla/Matrix with 5,981 registrations; the BMW 3-Series, with 4,659 registrations; and the Ford F-Series pickup with 4,197 registrations.
Auto Show Charity
The Orange County Auto Show’s first charity preview night raised more than $36,000 for the Children’s Hospital of OC. About 500 people attended the evening cocktail event among the cars at the Anaheim Convention Center prior to the consumer show, which took place in early October.
Orange County Automobile Dealers Association and the Southland Motor Car Dealers Association own the show. Motor Trend Auto Shows Inc. produces it.
Top Woman
Sue Klug, recently named one of the top women in the grocery business, was promoted to president of Albertsons’ Southern California Division. Klug was formerly senior vice president of marketing and merchandising and works out of Albertsons LLC’s office in Fullerton.
Klug oversees 290 Albertsons in Southern California. Albertsons, part of Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Supervalu Inc., expects to open about six stores this year and six in 2008, she said. Supervalu has nearly $40 billion in sales and employs 200,000 workers. Supervalu is the No. 2 grocer after Cincinnati-based Kroger Co.
Pete Van Helden, who held Klug’s position in addition to his duties as executive vice president of the Western region, will now oversee Supervalu’s Western regional stores.
Pinkberry Craze
Pinkberry, which has been signed at Fashion Island and in Santa Ana’s City Place, has opened at Bella Terra in Huntington Beach. Pinkberry has about 32 stores and plans to open 18 more this year.
Others signed at Bella Terra include Hush Baby, a 2,195-square-foot children’s clothing shop. It is Hush Baby’s fourth location.
Bella Terra reopened last year, following a $170 million redevelopment. Owner DJM Capital Partners Inc. is working on Bella Terra’s second-phase plans, which include high-end retail and restaurants, 500 homes and office space spanning 23 acres.
Holiday Season
The candy wasn’t even gone from the shelves at Target before holiday decorations were loaded up across from the Halloween goodies. It’s that time of year again. While experts are predicting an increase in holiday sales this year, it’s still expected to be the slowest season since 2002, when sales rose a mere 1.3%, according to the National Retail Federation.
It’s forecasting a 4% rise in holiday sales November through December to $474.5 billion. That’s below the 10-year average of 4.8%.
The association says luxury will be the bright spot, which bodes well in OC, where South Coast Plaza’s 96-foot holiday tree already has arrived from Mt. Shasta, and is in the process of being decorated with 20,000 colored lights. The annual lighting ceremony will be held Nov. 26.
The annual ice rink at the Irvine Spectrum Center also is open for business.
And Fashion Island’s 115-foot tree arrived Nov. 1.
