Every major automaker operating in the United States reported sales declines for the month of September. Overall automobile sales for September 2008 declined 26.6 percent when compared to September 2007, according to data released today. The bad news is undoubtedly tied to the overall financial downturn in America, rather than problems associated with any particular carmaker.
The biggest loser was Isuzu, which posted a 54.3 percent decline, according to data collected by Automotive News. The Japanese automaker — which is pulling out of the U.S. market in January — sold just 258 cars last month.
Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors posted declines of 36.3 percent, 32.8 percent, and 15.6 percent, respectively. GM, flush with new products and media attention, reported a relatively modest decline, when compared with its rivals. Also, despite falling from 334,974 unit sales to 282,806, GM remains the country’s largest automaker. The worst performer within GM was Hummer, with a drop of 54.8 percent.
The Ford Motor Company’s worst performer was Volvo, which saw sales fall 51.8 percent to 4,054 units. That said the Ford/Lincoln/Mercury division performed poorly with a decline of 33.7 percent, from 175,361 to 116,301.
Toyota (including Lexus and Scion) reported a sharp drop of 32.3 percent, selling 144,260 units, versus 213,042 a year ago. Honda’s decline was less severe, but still significant at 24.0 percent — down to 96,626 from 127,200. Nissan also dropped considerably — from 94,269 units to 59,565 — a 36.8 percent fall. Suzuki’s sales dropped 46.6 percent from 7,653 to 4,083 units.
Even the long-successful BMW Group faltered last month, posting a 25.7 percent drop in sales. The company sold just 18,543 BMW and MINI brand vehicles, versus 24,968 in September 2007. Rival Daimler AG had the smallest decline of any automaker — falling just 8.4 percent from 22,481 to 20,582 sales.
German automaker Porsche wasn’t so lucky — its sales fell a whopping 44.8 percent, from 2,641 to 1,458 sales. Volkswagen faired better, posting a decline of 9.4 percent — falling from 27,061 to 24,504 sales.
Korea’s Kia and Hyundai, which have been on a roll up until now, posted declines of 27.8 and 25.4 percent, respectively.
....If automakers would get it through their head that they need to stop making SUV's and Pickup truckes such as the Cadillac Escalade and the Cheve Silverado, and start making efficient cars such as the Toyota Prius and Upcoming Honda Insight, the sale would boost. Cadillac Escalades' suv had very low mpg. THey soon added a hybrid model of the escalade and it still have very very low mpg. If they stop making them and use that money to make more efficent cars, the sales would boost. Ford, and other american automakers, should give up and shut down.
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