U.S. Car Sales Climb 3.7% in Mid-November

DETROIT — Sales of cars made in the United States rose by 3.7% in mid-November compared to the same time last year, the domestic auto industry reported Wednesday.

Industry analysts said sales for the period were rather weak and signal the likelihood of another round of financial incentives and rebates on 1989 domestic cars before year-end.

“Some (of the weakness) is due to the fact that we’re just kind of in the fall doldrums,” said Christopher Cedergren, analyst with J. D. Power & Associates, an automotive market research firm in Agoura Hills. “The market doesn’t have the level of inventory action that it did in August and September. I think we’re in a bit of a pay-back period.”

Cedergren added that some of this may be because of an aggressive posture adopted by the Japanese import manufacturers, who are offering their own incentives.

With this sales rate and with dealers’ inventories quickly piling up, auto manufacturers “are going to have to implement rebates or cuts in production schedules, or both,” said David Healy, an auto analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert.

Thomas F. O’Grady, an automotive analyst with Integrated Automotive Resources, predicted that the domestic auto manufacturers would begin to put incentive programs on their cars as early as December.

AUTO SALES Percentage changes in auto sales for the middle of of November are based on daily rates rather than total sales volume. There were eight selling days in the current period and nine in the year-ago period.

November % 10-Day 1988 change GM 76,291 +6.4 Ford 47,450 -2.0 Chrysler 22,933 -2.6 Honda U.S. 8,260 +39.2 Nissan U.S. 1,949 +45.7 Toyota U.S. 1,524 +13.9 MazdaU.S. 675 +365.9 TOTAL 159,082 +3.7