December Car Sales: Gruesome

It came as no surprise to anyone that December car sales were awful.

Here are the numbers.

• GM (GM) Down 23% for the year
• Ford (F) Down 21% for the year
• Chrysler Down 30% for the year
• Toyota (TM) Down 16% for the year
• Honda (HMC) Down 8.2% for the year
• Daimler AG (DAI) Down 1.5% for the year
• Volkswagen (VLKAY.PK) Down 3.2% for the year
• Subaru (SBUOF.PK) Up 1% for the year

Not much more need be said.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, Paul Ingrassia has a good article in the WSJ today about Toyota. He does a thorough job dissecting their current problems and how they intend to approach them. Pretty refreshing stuff after the Detroit follies of the past few weeks. One thing that caught my eye was his comment that estimates of excess global capacity in the car business run as high as 20 million vehicles. That amounts to the output of 80 assembly plants.

Now aren’t you glad that our government picked such a fine industry in which to invest?

more: here

Comments

[uncle bubba:]

GM still out sold all other auto makers in 2008. We are very gald our elected officials saw the light and helped GM with financing when the credit dried up. GM was not the only auto manufacturer to be helped by it's own country. Still the largest and selling the most. Hard to equate that to the statements published here about no one wanting GM cars and trucks. The facts don't jive with Seeking Alpha's spin. Sorry guys. You're just idiots I guess. But keep pushing the rising sun, maybe you can retire in Japan in a large 400 sq ft flat in the homeland.

Jan 06 02:23 PM

[Mister Jimmy:]

Well stated, uncle bubba. SA = Seeking Alpha = Skewed Assessment = Stupid A**es.

Jan 06 03:16 PM