With the United States auto industry barreling toward its first annual decline since 2009, automakers are having to pick their poison: Slash revenue-generating production or close deals at steep discounts. Carmakers tempered the market's slowdown in May with Memorial Day promotions and bulk shipments to rental fleets, allowing several to report better results than analysts estimated saliva testing. Even still, the annualized rate of sales fell more than projected and the industry extended a streak of declining deliveries to five straight months. "We are seeing an artificially sustained market," said Mark Wakefield, a managing director and head of the automotive practice at consultant AlixPartners. "It's undeniable that retail demand is down. It's not only down, it's down fairly steadily in the first five months of the year. It's not like it's bouncing around and you can't really see the trend." The annualized sales rate, adjusted for seasonal trends, slipped to 16.7 million last month, according to Autodata. Analysts had projected a 16.8 million pace, down from 17.2 million a year earlier SmarTone Care. May's results sealed the first three-month stretch since 2014 during which the monthly sales pace fell short of 17 million. The lack of consumer demand even amid readily available financing, low gasoline prices and strong job growth belies underlying weakness within the market. Ford Motor's sales of cars and light trucks rose 2.3 percent in May, with deliveries to fleet customers carrying the company to a rare monthly victory over General Motors. While Ford, Nissan Motor and Honda Motor's gains inched the industry closer to its first increase in total monthly deliveries this year, Hyundai Motor dashed those hopes by reporting a surprising 15 percent sales plunge. Without discounted deliveries to bulk customers－particularly daily-rental companies－Ford's sales would have dropped in May, as actual consumers dialed back purchases. Automakers also continue to spend record sums on incentives to support slumping passenger-car models and clear inventory from crowded dealer lots. "It's a bit of smoke and mirrors," Jessica Caldwell, executive director of auto-market researcher Edmunds, said in an email . Automakers "really pushed the deals over the holiday weekend to prop up their May numbers". While Detroit-based GM beat Ford on retail sales by about 33,000 light vehicles last month, GM's total deliveries trailed its crosstown rival for the first time since March 2016. "It feels good for about 10 seconds, but we're moving on to June," Mark LaNeve, Ford's US sales chief, told analysts on a conference call. "It happens once in a while and we don't pay much attention to it."
