Terrible Car Sales Report

From Big Picture: Car Sales in 2008 Were Horrific
• General Motors U.S. sales plunged to a 49-year low in 2008. December was another poor month, down 31%;
• Toyota U.S. deliveries plummeted 37% percent; Auto sales in Japan dropped 5 percent in December and finished the year at a 28-year low.
• Honda fell 35%;
• Ford Motor fell 32%
• Nissan was down 31% percent;
• Chrysler dived 53%;
• Mercedes-Benz was off 24;
•Audi sales fell 9.3%
• BMW sales fell 36%
• Subaru sales were down 7.7%;
• Volkswagen AG said its December sales fell 14%;
• This was the worst annual volume since 1992;
• 2008 will be the first year in which the U.S. automakers combined market share was less than 50%;
• This was the first drop in sales for Japanese automakers for Toyota since (1995) and Honda (1993)

From Calculated Risk: Hamilton on December Auto Sales
The big difference is in early 2008, the primary problem for U.S. auto manufactures was the sharp hike in gasoline prices, which explains the collapse of sales of SUVs at the same time that imports of smaller cars were on the way up. By contrast, the current problems for the auto sector resulted from the broad collapse in overall consumer spending.