Like October 1929, But For Cars: GM Drops 45 Percent, Others Not Much Better
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DETROIT - We all saw this coming. October car/truck sales were the worst in more than two decades. Some analysts predicted a couple of days ago that Toyota would pass General Motors in U.S. sales for the month, but that didn't happen. GM had a big sale in October 2007, so its 45-percent drop for October 2008 looks even worse. Toyota's "Save By Zero" campaign, in which you can buy a new Toyota, Lexus or Scion with 0-percent financing, propped up the automaker last month, so its sales dropped only 25.9 percent. Still, GM managed to lead Toyota, 170,585 to 152,101 units.
Let's look at just a few key models from various manufacturers. GM has listed the Chevrolet Malibu, Buick Enclave and Cadillac CTS as standouts during the last year. Malibu was up 82 percent (over the ramp-up of the new model in October '07) to 10,874, Enclave was off 47.5 percent to 2,228 and CTS was off 39.3 percent to 3,997.
At Ford, Fusion was off 3.3 percent to 10,836, Mustang was off 48.8-percent to 4,686 and F-Series was off 16.3 percent to 48,324.
Chrysler. Ahem. Dodge Ram, mostly the outgoing '08 model, was its best seller, off 21 percent to 10,747. It has almost caught the GMC Sierra in light pickup sales. Jeep Patriot was up slightly, by 62 units, to 3,252 for October '08. Dodge sold 4,380 of its new Journeys and 3,014 of its new Challengers.
Toyota sold 30,556 Camrys, off 12.8 percent. Prius was 11,804, off 13.6 percent and Tundra was off 65.4 percent, at 6,425.
Here are two important numbers. Chevrolet sold 6,478 Cobalts, off 60.8 percent. Ford sold 10,576 Foci, off 18.2 percent. In two years, Ford will have an all-new global Focus, while GM will have delayed its Cobalt replacement, the Chevy Cruze, by one year. Which will be the sales leader? Yep, the Ford, even though the Volt will be drawing customers into Chevy dealers. And now, to the corporate numbers:
1.) GM: 170,576, off 45.0 percent
2.) ToMoCo: 152,101, off 25.9 percent
3.) FoMoCo: 132,838, off 30.2 percent
4.) Chrysler: 94,530, off 35 percent
5.) Honda: 85,864, off 28.0 percent
6.) Nissan: 56,945, off 33.0 percent
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