Nov. vehicle sales hit a 26-year low

NEW YORK - U.S. light-vehicle sales at General Motors and Chrysler plunged more than 40 percent last month, while Ford's sales dropped 31 percent, battered by an economic storm that has sent consumer demand for new vehicles to the lowest level in more than 26 years.

GM's sales fell 41 percent, while Chrysler's dropped 47 percent. Their overseas rivals posted abysmal results as well. Toyota Motor Corp.'s November U.S. sales tumbled 34 percent, while Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s dropped 42 percent, and Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s fell 32 percent.

Automakers sold 746,789 vehicles last month in the United States. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate for the month was 10.18 million, compared with 16.07 million a year earlier. That's the lowest level since October 1982, according to AutoData Corp.

Like retailers of other big-ticket items, automakers have taken a beating in recent months as worries about the economy and unemployment have prompted consumers to slash spending. At the same time, some people afraid that they will not qualify for credit or that it will be too costly have put purchases on hold.

On Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research said the United States entered a recession in December 2007, much earlier than most predictions.

Many analysts had expected November sales to improve slightly from the previous month's 25-year low, noting that aggressive incentive spending and the plunge in gasoline prices may have put a floor under sales. But U.S. vehicle sales fell 11 percent from October, according to AutoData.

Chrysler L.L.C. said its November sales decline included a 59 percent decrease in demand for cars and a 42 percent decline in truck sales. The Auburn Hills, Mich., automaker said the drops were partially a result of a 63 percent fall in fleet sales. Excluding such sales, Chrysler said its sales last month fell 36 percent.

General Motors Corp. reported a 44 percent drop in demand for cars, while light-truck sales dropped 39 percent.

Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global market analysis, blamed the Detroit automaker's sharp sales decline on the global economic crisis and the credit squeeze.

DiGiovanni said the U.S. auto industry was in a worse state of recession than the broader economy "and, some might say, bordering on a depression."

Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co.'s group vice president of marketing, said he expected the industry to post continued year-over-year sales declines until at least the second half of 2009.

Farley said sales started the month at an improved rate, but began skidding around mid-November, coinciding with the Detroit Three's presentation to Congress for $25 billion in loans. But he cautioned that numerous factors worked together to hobble sales.

"The talk of the bailouts and the bankruptcies and all the uncertainty and job loss has obviously done little to bolster consumer confidence," Farley said.

Ford, based in Dearborn, Mich., said light-truck sales for its namesake brand, Lincoln and Mercury, were off 29 percent compared with November 2007, while the three brands' car sales were down 32 percent.

Sales of Ford's top-selling F-Series pickups dropped 19 percent, significantly less than most of the automaker's other models, attributed in part to the sharp decline in gasoline prices.