Auto sales continue to plummet
January 5, 2009 – 2:18 pm
Can’t do too much to rescue automakers if no one is buying cars. Detroit’s bad vehicle lineup is only partly to blame. The bigger problem is that overall demand has collapsed. Americans now buy about 10m cars on an annualized basis, down from 16m. Bloomberg:
Ford Motor Co. said U.S. sales fell 32 percent in December, while Honda Motor Co. posted a 35 percent decline as the recession curbed demand in the world’s biggest auto market.
Sales at Ford, the second-biggest U.S. automaker, dwindled to 139,067 cars and trucks, from 195,105 a year earlier, the Dearborn, Michigan-based company said today in a PR Newswire statement. Honda, No. 2 in Japan, was down to 86,085 vehicles from 131,792, said Chris Martin, a spokesman.
Honda’s December slide dragged the company to its first annual U.S. sales decline since 1993, while the industry’s 2008 total may have been the lowest in 16 years. Last month’s federal rescue of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC failed to stem consumer pessimism and tight credit.
“If consumer confidence doesn’t snap back soon, it’s going to be difficult for the automakers,” said John Wolkonowicz, an analyst with IHS Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. “It isn’t just GM, Ford, Chrysler that are suffering from this. It is the entire auto industry globally.”
GM and Chrysler, which received commitments last month for as much as $17.4 billion in U.S. loans, likely will say today they fared worse than Honda and Ford. GM sales declined 41 percent and Chrysler’s fell 48 percent, based on the average of 6 analysts’ forecasts.
Toyota Motor Corp. may report a 40 percent slide, and Nissan Motor Co. may have dropped 43 percent, according to a Dec. 31 note from Brian Johnson, a Barclays Capital analyst in Chicago. Nissan is Japan’s third-biggest automaker after Toyota and Tokyo-based Honda.
I’ll update this post when GM/Chrysler report their December sales figures later today. It won’t be pretty.
The over-under on Detroit coming back to the taxpayers for more money is this summer.
4 Responses to “Auto sales continue to plummet”
“Can’t do too much to rescue automakers if no one is buying cars.”
Ummm, fiscal stimulus?
By Eli on Jan 5, 2009
Now how to the domestic haters explain that when Honda, Nissan, and Toyota fell sharper than GM and Ford?
By Drew on Jan 5, 2009
The Big Three are toast. GM has lost money for four years, even during an expansion. 2010 will be the end of them.
By GloomBoom on Jan 5, 2009
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Now how to the domestic haters explain that when Honda, Nissan, and Toyota fell sharper than GM and Ford?
By Drew on Jan 5, 2009
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We explain this by what you have never paid attention to in our argument: How come Honda is not inline for a Bailout?
Ford lovers, just used to say that Ford has it tougher. Turns out Ford lovers were liars.
By Sane on Jan 6, 2009