Ford's US sales plunge 40 pct, Toyota down 32 pct

[Turborama]

Source: AP

By KIMBERLY S. JOHNSON and BREE FOWLER, AP Auto Writers – 24 mins ago

DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday its U.S. vehicle sales fell 40 percent in January, setting an abysmal start to 2009 for the automaker and the industry overall as sales to fleet buyers like rental car companies weighed down the results.

Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. posted a 32 percent drop for the month but managed to outsell Ford.

Ford sold 93,060 light vehicles in January, compared with 155,832 in the same month of 2008. Toyota sold 117,287 vehicles, down from 171,849. Light vehicle sales exclude heavy trucks.

Other automakers also are expected to report lower sales when they release their figures later Tuesday. The industry has reported at least a 30 percent decline in U.S. sales every month since October.

Chrysler LLC sales chief Steven Landry said Tuesday that U.S. industry sales could drop as much as 35 percent in January. After meeting with Chrysler dealers at a suburban Detroit hotel, he said the annualized sales rate for the month could drop below 10 million for the first time in more than 26 years.

According to Ward's AutoInfoBank, the last month in which the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate dropped below 10 million was August 1982, when it hit 9.9 million as the nation was mired in a recession.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090203/ap_on_bi_ge/auto_sales

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(edit to fix typo)

[whistle]

1. No credit - no car

[marketcrazy1]

2. did you hear that??!!

that was the sound of another big old piece of shit hitting the fan!!! duck and cover!!!!!

[Ikonoklast]

4. But free government money=John Thain having a great life.

Hooray.

Hope he saved some of that dough to hire Blackwater goons to keep the rabble outside his compound.

[Divine Discontent]

13. if that happens - there'll be too many climbing the walls - they can't stop the masses. eom

[n2doc]

3. Incentive programs don't work if you have no job

or are worried about losing your job. Car sales won't come back until the rest of the economy stabilizes and those left with jobs feel more secure.

[acmavm]

5. You're exactly right. We got asked to 'voluntarily' take some time off or

we would be having to deal with lay-offs today. I cannot believe that it's not obvious that its more important to get money back into the hands of the people than it is to people who spend 1.22 million redecorating an office. (That m****er f****er should have called Trading Spaces and gotten Vern's new phone number. He could have gotten it tastefully redone for next to nothing.)

Time to get the money back to the people who have to pay for this bailout crap anyway. That would be US.

[boomerbust]

6. GM

-50.2%

[boomerbust]

7. Chrysler

-56%

[NickB79]

11. Holy crap

:wow:

[Mari333]

8. 2 guys in my small town

just started a telemarketing business in one of the empty store fronts here..they think they are going to hit it rich..their product? extended automobile warranties for cars...
I wish them well, but I have a feeling they will sink fast. this IS Michigan.

[fasttense]

9. So why aren't all those uber wealthy that the Republicons made so much richer in the last 8 yrs

out buying these cars? Why aren't they creating that demand? Come on supply-sider economists create some of that demand. You've got a ton of supply. Where is all that demand you supposedly can create simply by providing the crap to buy?

I guess supply-side economics is nothing but a fantasy.

Back to good old supply and demand.

[KillCapitalism]

10. The problem with Toyota...

is that they were once affordable, but now that's not the case. Yaris goes for $15K+ and some Corollas can go for $20K+. Beck in the 80's these both would have been very affordable models. They need to cut back on their pricing a bit, or if not, just slap a Lexus badge on everything they produce.

[NickB79]

12. Adjusted for inflation, $15,000 in 2008 is only $6000 in 1980 dollars

Check it out here: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

For the hell of it, I looked up the cost of a new 1989 Geo Metro, the ultimate econobox ever sold: http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Geo_1989_Geo_Metro

Run through that calculator, that means a Geo Metro sold today would retail for almost $12,000!

[JCMach1]

14. Ain't going to happen... Yen is still high...