Robust lease returns, a push from fleet and being one of many few automakers nonetheless within the high- quantity sedan enterprise helped Toyota escape a broad trade gross sales fall in November, a month made worse by a calender quirk that pushed three promoting days into December.

Throughout the trade, the seasonally adjusted, annualized price of gross sales completed at 15.88 million in November, in response to Motor Intelligence. The SAAR fell underneath 16 million for the primary time since August, when it was 15.22 million, and was considerably weaker than October’s 16.38 million.

Toyota Motor North America completed November down 1 p.c — together with a flat month at Toyota Division and a 6.8 p.c slide at Lexus — but posted document November gross sales for its lineup of hybrids and year-over-year beneficial properties for its two pickups.

Bob Carter, head of gross sales for the Japanese automaker, stated he went into the ultimate weekend in November believing the trade was experiencing the identical robust retail month that Toyota was — nevertheless it wasn’t.

“Our enterprise final week popping out of Thanksgiving was so sturdy, and we had been doing so effectively in retail, that I assumed that it was translating throughout the trade,” Carter stated.

Carter stated Toyota and Lexus had their highest mixed market share in November since 2010, and he estimated that the automaker had its strongest retail share in any month since 2014. A part of that was pushed by 46,000 off-lease automobiles returned in November and about 26,000 fleet gross sales, protecting the corporate inside its 8 to 9 p.c historic fleet common.

One other huge issue has been Toyota’s capability to get its manufacturing vegetation operating again at close to capability. Carter stated 77 p.c of Toyota’s gross sales final month had been 2021 fashions, whereas the vast majority of retail gross sales elsewhere had been 2020 fashions.

The Camry sedan additionally received a lift in its bid to as soon as once more end the yr because the trade’s top-selling sedan, posting a 15 p.c gross sales acquire in November whereas gross sales of its primary rival, the Honda Civic, dropped 27 p.c.

Toyota’s end result got here in a month during which the lack of these promoting days weighed closely on the outcomes of a lot of the different automakers that also put up gross sales month-to-month.

Ford Motor Co., which has returned to public month-to-month gross sales reporting after almost two years, was down 21 p.c as F-150 inventories remained tight. American Honda had an excellent harder month, down 23 p.c in contrast with a yr earlier, whereas each Mazda and Subaru dropped 11 p.c. Hyundai-Kia fell 8.2 p.c, as Kia’s 5.2 p.c decline buoyed a steeper 11 p.c fall by Hyundai Motor America, which incorporates the Genesis luxurious model.

Volvo was the one automaker reporting gross sales in November to complete within the black, posting a 20 p.c improve, its sixth consecutive month of year-over-year beneficial properties. Regardless of COVID-19, Volvo’s year-to-date gross sales had been up 11 automobiles, at 95,885, led by beneficial properties from the XC40 and XC60 crossovers. Different automakers report outcomes quarterly.

Simply because the calendar often taketh away, so too does it giveth — as these three lacking promoting days slip into December, giving a man-made bump as automakers scramble to make up the gross sales misplaced to COVID-19 within the spring.

However a resurgent virus and indicators of one other financial slowdown imply it won’t be that straightforward, stated Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist with Cox Automotive.

“I believe what we’re seeing on the market … is that there’s a deterioration [of economic activity] that is been taking place over the past couple weeks,” Chesbrough defined. Following the election in early November, a surge of infections has stuffed up hospitals and triggered authorities officers to situation new mandates and warnings, tamping down gross sales at the least regionally, he stated.

“Our expectation is that we’re most likely going to see gross sales average even additional than they did in November,” Chesbrough stated, including that present estimates counsel that December will permit the yr to complete above 14 million new-vehicle gross sales within the U.S.

“It is both going to spherical down or spherical up,” he stated. “Our expectation is that we’ll end at 14.3 million, perhaps 14.4; however in some ways, I’d name {that a} success.”

Added Chesbrough: “To be ending out this yr with a pair 16 million and even 15 million promoting price months, after the way in which this yr went, I believe a lot of the trade would take that.”