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November U.S. new car sales mixed as automakers deepen discounts

DETROIT — Major automakers posted mixed U.S. November new vehicle sales on Friday and predicted a competitive December as they rushed to sell vehicles and boost their numbers before 2017 ends. Automakers are trying to sell down 2017 model-year vehicles, offering high discounts to consumers as the year-end nears. In 2016, the industry reported record annual sales of 17.55 million units. According to consultancies J.D. Power and LMC, discounts have been above 10 percent of the average transaction price for 16 of the past 17 months, a level experts say is unhealthy and unsustainable. The November sales results come as the National Automobile Dealers Association said on Friday it expects new vehicle sales to decline to 16.7 million units in 2018, after dropping to 17.1 million for the full year in 2017. If that forecast comes true, the race to move new vehicles off dealers' lots will only intensify next year. Brandon Mason, a director at PwC's automotive practice, said a worrying trend for the industry was a rising number of subprime loans. He said subprime levels are at just over 20 percent of originations, against more than 30 percent prior to the Great Recession, but recent increases remain a concern. "That's a bit of a red flag," Mason said. "It's something to keep an eye on as we move into 2018." November results by automaker: General Motors: Sales fell 2.9 percent, with sales to consumers flat against the same month in 2016. Much of the decrease was driven by lower fleet sales. GM said strong SUV and crossover sales pushed its average transaction price for the month above $37,000 for the first time. The level of unsold cars, which has been a concern for analysts and the industry, rose slightly to 83 days' supply, from 80 days at the end of October. "More vehicles are sold in December than any other month, and we are very well positioned because we have momentum in so many segments, but especially in crossovers," said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of sales operations. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: Fleet sales are low-margin, and FCA in particular has targeted a significant reduction in this type of sale in 2017. It posted a 4 percent overall decrease in sales for November, but fleet sales were down 25 percent while sales to consumers were up 2 percent on the year. Ford: The No. 2 U.S. automaker reported a 6.7 percent increase for the month, with fleet sales up nearly 26 percent and retail sales 1.3 percent higher than in November 2016.

Daily Driver: 2015 Ford Edge Sport

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, reviewed by the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Ford Edge Sport, reviewed by Adam Morath. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Hi. I'm Adam Morath for Autoblog and in today's Daily Driver we're with the 2015 Ford Edge. It's been completely redesigned and I really think that it needed it because this was always kind of the last car to come to mind when I was considering all of Ford's lineup. It was sort of forgotten. I don't think that will be the case anymore. It looks great. They revamped the exterior. The first thing I noticed walking up to the car when they first dropped it off was [00:00:30] the great job they've done with the taillights. They've got a very high tech look to them. You have LED accent lighting that surrounds the tail lamps and then a light bar that spans the entire deck lid. It looks pretty cool, very angular, a lot sportier than the previous models. We also have the optional HID headlights so if you combine that with what I've already told you about with the [00:01:00] tail lamps, and also the ambient lighting inside this vehicle ... It just feels like the lighting in general was very well considered on the Edge and gives it a very modern feel. The nice design continues to the interior as well. You've got leather panels with contrast stitching on the sport model. You've got a nice center console that actually has some storage underneath it, so it's sort of a floating center console. The only thing is there is still a little bit of cheap plastic [00:01:30] used on the interior. That's a common complaint of automotive journalists worldwide, but this one I can see already has a few scratches on it. You can also get this vehicle with 20-inch aluminum wheels or 21-inch matte black aluminum wheels. Here we've got them wrapped in Perelli. I haven't been on a track or anything where you could really get a sense of the performance, but again, that just adds to the sporty look of the Edge in the sport trim level. It has the new 2.7 [00:02:00] liter Eco Boost V6 and I have been really happy with this powertrain. It puts out 315 horsepower, 350 pound feet of torque, and that's that twin turbo working for you. It helps with acceleration and passing at highway speed, so it checks both boxes there.

2014 Ford Fiesta ST

I'm not overly inclined to professional jealousy, as a rule. Sure, I go a bit green around the eyes when Ramsey draws the 911 GT3 trip to Weissach, Harley is tapped-in to drive a completely stunning Porsche 911 by Singer, or, you know, Drew Phillips gets to shoot a Lamborghini Veneno in the middle of a desert like some sort of sheik. I hate you guys...
Honestly though, one of the new car events that dug me the most, was when our Steven J. Ewing got to fling the Ford Fiesta ST around some hot corner of Europe. What goes around comes around, I suppose, as Mr. Ewing himself espoused an envious nature of the Focus ST trip that came before.
The good news in all this covetous intra-office behavior? All the cars mentioned, and specifically the Fiesta ST, are just wonderful to drive. I can say that with more confidence than ever now, having joined Ford for a good bit of Fiesta-flinging myself. In my case, the locale was slightly more pedestrian (Michigan not Portugal), and the car in question was the five-door version of the Fiesta ST that we get here in The States, as opposed to the three-door number they get across the pond.