General Motors, Nissan and other automakers suffered through another dismal sales month in October in spite of rapidly declining gasoline prices, with overall U.S. sales dropping to their lowest levels since January 1992.
Combined sales of all auto manufacturers fell 32 percent compared with October 2007, led by General Motors Corp.'s startling drop of 45 percent.
Franklin-based Nissan North America Inc. said its sales were down 33 percent, while Chrysler LLC saw a 34.9 percent drop and Ford Motor Co. was off 32 percent.
"It was bad, but it was bad everywhere," Nissan spokesman Fred Standish said. "Trucks are still sluggish even though gasoline prices have come down. But our car sales actually were up 1.8 percent from last month."
Meanwhile, sales of the gas-sipping Nissan Versa subcompact rose 2.7 percent from October 2007, the flagship Maxima sedan was up 33 percent, and the compact Rogue crossover was up 10.8 percent. Overall Nissan truck sales were off 51.8 percent from a year earlier, and cars were down 18.3 percent, including both the Nissan and Infiniti brands.
The top two Japanese automakers fared slightly better, with Toyota Motor Sales USA down 23 percent and American Honda Motor Co. off 25.2 percent. Even Volks wagen, which had been fairly immune to negative sales numbers this year, reported a decline of 7.9 percent from October 2007.
"It was just a horrible month," said Jessica Caldwell, an industry analyst with the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.
"Showroom traffic in October was way down because of a lack of consumer confidence and some credit problems," she said. "A lot of people are worried about their jobs, their savings and their retirement, and that didn't put them in the mood to make a $30,000 vehicle purchase."
New incentives unveiledNashville was no exception, with dealers reporting extremely slow sales for the month.
"Like everybody else, our sales were way down," said Marty Horn, sales manager at Nashville's Crown Ford. "But we're still plugging away. Consumers need to know that it's OK to buy cars, and we do have lenders with plenty of money to finance them."
Despite a national credit crunch and the decision in early October by GMAC Financial Services to limit loans at GM dealers to only the most credit-worthy customers, Nashville-area dealers have plenty of financing options, said Gary Beeler, general manager of Neill-Sandler Buick Pontiac GMC in Murfreesboro.
"October was a tough month," Beeler said.
New incentive programs were being rolled out this week by most automakers, with Nissan offering zero-percent financing on five popular models, along with some special lease deals.
GM is starting its "red tag" sale, which gives consumers "supplier prices" on almost all new 2008 and 2009 models, along with large rebates on many vehicles. The supplier price is 4 percent over the employee price, and GM rebates range as high as $8,500.
Ford dealers were expecting to hear about the latest incentives on their vehicles today, Horn said. "We expect to see a little bit more money on the rebates."
GM's truck sales drop was 51 percent overall, with full-size pickups off 38.6 percent. But the popular new Malibu midsize sedan was up 82 percent, and the full-size Impala sedan up 6.3 percent for the month.
The new Spring Hill-built Chevrolet Traverse, which began trickling into dealers in October, accounted for 1,359 sales. But dealers had few of them to sell, GM said.
At Ford, cars were off 26.8 percent, trucks down 30.3, and sport utility vehicles 53.9 percent compared with a year ago. Even crossovers were down 38.8 percent despite Ford's introduction of the new seven-passenger Flex earlier this fall.
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