MarketWatch: Automakers post grim September sales

Automakers post grim September sales

By Matt Andrejczak, MarketWatch


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - A shaky economy and constricted credit market took a steep toll on September auto sales, with the industry rolling out numbers Wednesday every bit as gloomy as analysts had warned they would be.

Ford Motor Co. reported U.S. sales of its cars and light trucks plunged 34% last month compared with a year ago. General Motors Corp. sales fell 15.6%.

It was the eleventh consecutive month of declining sales for the two carmakers, putting the industry on track for monthly domestic sales of fewer than a million vehicles for the first time since February 1993, according to Edmonds.com, a car-buying research site.

Weak results were not confined to Detroit. Among those reporting so far, Honda Motor Co. reported a 24% drop in U.S. sales, Hyundai Motor America sales fell 25% and Porsche AG sales tumbled 45%.
In addition to a weak economy, stubbornly high gasoline prices continued to cripple demand for larger vehicles. Ford said sales of its flagship F-series Ford pickups were down a staggering 41% from a year ago while sport utility vehicle sales tanked 57%.

"Consumers and businesses are in a very fragile place," said Jim Farley, a Ford vice president. "An already weak economy compounded by very tight credit conditions has created an atmosphere of caution."

The automaker said September marked its worst sales month so far this year and for the industry. At Ford, U.S. sales for September slumped to 120,788 vehicles from 184,612 in the year-earlier month. SUV sales plunged to 8,623 vehicle sales from 20,040.

Combined sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury fell 33.8% to 116,734 units, while Volvo sales slumped 51.8% to 4,054. Truck sales slid 39.5% to 76,281 units.

The sales decline is expected to force more car dealerships to close up shop as consumers grapple with surging food and gas-pump prices, and in some cases, home foreclosures. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/weak-economy-takes-heavy-toll/story.aspx?guid=%7B3B381CCF%2D53F4%2D452C%2DADC0%2DE481B7EBDE1B%7D

...killing the EV-1 might've been the DUMBEST move by a major US corporation in a life time... or two.:thumbsdown:

I'm sure sales are down across the board, but I'd like to see the comparative on the sales of used cars less than 3 years old. I've never bought a car brand new, and never will*.




*If I win the lottery or otherwise obtain significant wealth I'll spring for a brand new F430 Cabriolet, but that's it.

This is what you get for continuing to push your stupid monster trucks and SUVs in your commercials while never mentioning the good, efficient small cars you make, like the Aveo, thus handing all that business to the people who do advertise, the Europeans and Asians. I know your profit margin is higher on a guzzler, but that assumes you're going to sell a guzzler, which you are clearly not going to do when gas prices are so high.

Oh, and do something about that website. That cutesy format takes forever to load, even on broadband. Some of us do prefer doing our research online before we start to do the legwork and all those cyber tchotchkes tend to discourage it.