U.S. auto sales fell 23 percent in October as Ford overtook Toyota for the top spot

U.S. auto production and dealer inventories have been severely affected by tight chip supplies and other supply-chain bottlenecks. Ford's U.S. sales fell 4% in October from a year earlier, the fifth straight month of decline; U.S. sales at Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Also fell for a third straight month.

On Nov. 3, Motor Intelligence and Morgan Stanley said the U.S. sold 13.1 million vehicles at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in October, near the high end of forecasts from Cox Motor And J.D. Power ranging from 11.8 million to 13.5 million, suggesting the auto market may have hit bottom.

U.S. auto sales fell 23 percent in October, also within the range of forecasts, with light trucks accounting for 81 percent of sales, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said.

Ford's U.S. sales fell 4% in October from a year earlier, its smallest monthly decline so far this year. Within that, truck sales were down 7 percent, while crossover and SUV sales were up 13 percent, helped by new models like the Mustang Mach-E, Bronco Sport and Bronco. Sales of ford and Lincoln brands fell 3.3 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

Toyota's sales fell 29%, while Toyota's fell 31% and Lexus's fell 15%, the third straight monthly decline for the Toyota brand and the steepest, while Lexus's declined for the second straight month. Sales of the Toyota brand's best-selling models all fell by nearly double digits year over year: Camry (-40%), RAV4 (-39%), Tacoma (-38%), Highlanda (-19%) and Corolla (-61%).

Honda's deliveries fell 24 percent in October, while sales for the Honda and Acura brands fell 23 percent and 27 percent, respectively. Like Toyota, Honda saw significant declines in sales of some of its best-selling models: Accord (-20%), Civic (-39%), CR-V (-22%), Pilot (-19%); Only two Honda models posted sales gains: The Insight, up 41% from a year earlier to 1,939 units; Hr-v rose 57% to 11,667 vehicles

Hyundai's U.S. sales rose 6.2% from a year earlier, with hyundai brand sales down 1.1%, but the company said retail sales rose 1% in October to a record 52,767 vehicles. Hyundai said its dealers had 19,894 vehicles in stock at the end of October, down 26% from 26,717 at the end of September and down 86% from 142,616 at the same time last year.

Deliveries of Hyundai's high-end Jennesseth brand jumped 403% in October from a year earlier to 5,300 vehicles. Sales of Jennisseth's two crossovers again easily outsold the company's three sedans combined.

Kia sold 52,067 units, down 7.2 percent from a year earlier. "Despite ongoing chip shortages and supply chain issues, we expect the availability of chips and strong customer demand to enable us to end the year with a very strong sales performance," Eric Watson, Kia's vice president of Sales for the Americas, said in a statement.

Subaru's sales fell 40 per cent from a year earlier, the fifth straight month of decline. Sales of all Subaru models except the WRX/STI fell, with sales of the top-selling Forester plunging 67% to 4,820 units.

Mazda and Volvo both saw their sales decline for the second month in a row, falling 14 percent and 19 percent respectively.

Cox Motors, J.D. Power and others expect U.S. auto sales to be down 20 percent to 30 percent in October from a year earlier. Sales rose 13% in the first three quarters of the year, rising in both the first and second quarters, but fell 13% in the third quarter.

Inventory levels of U.S. cars and light trucks stayed below 1 million for a third straight month in October, and the average number of days spent at dealerships fell to a low of 20 days, down from 49 days a year ago and 23 days in September, J.D. Power said.