Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Toyota (TM) Shrugs off Recalls, US Sales Soar 42 Percent in February

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM) led U.S. sales gains by Asian carmakers with a 42 percent surge in February, the biggest in at least 10 years, even after the Japanese company recalled 2.2 million vehicles last week.

Sales of Toyota, Lexus and Scion-brand vehicles last month rose by the greatest percentage of any month since 2000, said Carly Schaffner, a spokeswoman for Toyota’s U.S. sales unit. Deliveries increased 22 percent at Honda Motor Co., 32 percent at Nissan Motor Co. and 28 percent at Hyundai Motor Co., according to Autodata Corp., a Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based research company.

“We didn’t see anything that was measurable, in terms of an impact” from Toyota’s recall, said Jesse Toprak, an analyst at TrueCar Inc., an industry data provider in Santa Monica, California. “People who were turned off to Toyota because of recalls were already turned off. Toyota did exceed our expectations.”

After spending 15 months reassuring consumers about quality following millions of vehicle recalls for defects linked to unintended acceleration, Toyota said Feb. 24 it would call back additional models to fix flaws involving floor mats and carpets. Earlier in the month, U.S. officials said a review didn’t show any link between electronics and reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

Toyota closed at $92.84, down $0.46, or 0.49 percent.




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