European Car Sales Fall on Fuel Cost, Spreading Gloom

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- European car sales fell 7.9 percent in June on higher fuel prices and a slump in demand spreading north from Spain and Italy. Japanese automakers led the declines.

New car registrations dropped to 1,427,008 from 1,549,574 in June 2007, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said today in a statement. Sales for the first half of the year slid 2 percent, accelerating the 0.7 percent contraction recorded in the first five months.

``Only France and Germany are holding up the EU market, but even growth in these two regions is beginning to slow,'' London- based Citigroup analysts Kristina Church and John Lawson said in a report to investors.

Carmakers face a squeeze from surging oil prices and other raw materials costs on the one hand and flagging demand for new cars on the other. Consumer confidence sank to a three-year low last month in the 15 countries that share the euro, the European Commission said in June.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=a5TkXy6gsUSM&refer=germany

for cars, in the end, it will all mean jack. China is adding something like 25,000 cars per day, which negates any conservation efforts on Europe and the U.S.

It is always remarkable to hear Americans complain about Indians and Chinese who want to live like Americans.

I favor getting Americans to abandon their lust for cars.

This forum is filled with car lust by the participants, many of them, if not the majority of them, anti-nuke "renewables will save us" dangerous fossil fuel apologists.

I want the U.S. to conserve more, but as long as China and India add more demand, by buying Hummers no less, then what's the point?

as they generally have wonderful rail systems, urban centers with good taxi services, and more dense cities that can be walked or bicycled through. If fuel is too big an expense, they have better options than we do, and so are not tied to their cars so tightly.