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To: Jim McMannis who wrote (421583)	10/1/2008 7:28:03 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1594451

As bad as auto sales were in August, they went into free fall in September: Auto Sales Tank Wednesday, October 01, 2008 \| 01:55 PM The recent data has been nothing short of astonishing. Auto sales, which were weak over the past 11 months, simply went into freefall in September: • Ford Motor posted a 34% drop. Their truck and van sales fell 39%, SUV sales plummeted 57% and F-series truck sales dropped 42%. • Honda reported a 24% decline in sales; • Toyota U.S. Sept. sales drop 32.3%, light truck sales dropped 38% • Lexus sales -- Toyota's luxury nameplate -- fell 37.7%; • Chrysler U.S. September sales fall 33% • Volvo sales slumped 51.8%; • Porsche tumbled 45%; • General Motors sales down 15.6% (better than the expectations of -26%) • Nissan Sales down 37% • BMW U.S. sales dropped 25.8% • Mercedes-Benz reported sales off -16.4% • Volkswagen sales for September fell 9.4%; • Hyundai Motor's U.S. sales fell 25%; • Kia U.S. sales slide 27.8% • Audi U.S. sales are down 5.4% (but they are a low volume marquee, selling 7, 584 units, vs small Korean mfr KIA, which sold 17,383) This means the bog winners were VW, (-9.4%), GM, whose sales were better than expected (-15.6%), and Mercedes Benz (-16.4%). I cannot recall ever seeing Toyota sales down 32% . . . According to the Detroit Free Press, the seasonally adjusted annual SAAR for the past decade has ranged between 14 million and 17 million vehicles. Since December, the SAAR has been in a free-fall, and September now looks like its going to hit 13 million annualized sales. Edmonds.com noted that the last time fewer than 1 million new vehicles were sold in a month was February 1993. In a related Reuters story, a new study says that nearly 1 in 5 car dealerships could fail: "As many as 3,800 U.S. car dealerships could fail this fall and into 2009 -- nearly one in five -- because of weak sales, increased operational costs and the credit crunch, according to a forecast released on Wednesday. "An increasing number of dealers are simply closing their doors because sales have plummeted, credit has dried up, the overall retail environment is increasingly challenging and potential investors are sitting on the sidelines," said Paul Melville, a partner with Grant Thornton LLP, which issued the forecast." Gosh, thank goodness we are not in a recession! Imagine how bad auto sales would be then! bigpicture.typepad.com

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (421583)	10/1/2008 7:56:44 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1594451

Just across the border, car sales were a different story....... Canadian September Auto Sales Rise, Helped by Toyota, By Hugo Miller Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Auto sales in Canada rose 1.7 percent in September as an increase for Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles helped outweigh declines at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., according to figures compiled by a consulting firm. Total sales of cars and light trucks climbed to 134,131 from 131,827 a year earlier, Richmond Hill, Ontario-based DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. said today in an e-mailed statement. That included Toyota's 14 percent gain as well as GM's 6.5 percent drop and Ford's 6.3 percent decline, the firm said. The monthly increase, the second in five months, was buoyed by car sales, which climbed 5.1 percent. Light truck sales fell 2.2 percent. Canada's economy expanded at its fastest pace in four years in July, Statistics Canada said yesterday, as consumer confidence held up better than in the U.S. There, car and light truck sales probably fell for an 11th consecutive month in September, the longest slide in 17 years, as the financial crisis prompts lenders to tighten lending criteria and consumers to slow spending. bloomberg.com