Projo Cars Blog

DETROIT — Sales for each of the nation’s four largest automakers fell last month, prompting some executives to forecast a gloomy spring, a period that typically posts strong sales, according to The New York Times.

General Motors and Toyota, however, said they were optimistic about the benefits of declining interest rates and tax rebate checks that most Americans will get starting in May as part of the federal economic stimulus package. But executives at the Ford Motor Company said they did not think the industry had hit bottom yet.

“I’d like to be able to tell you the worst is behind us, but I really can’t give you that assurance,” Ford’s marketing chief, James D. Farley, said on Tuesday. “At this point, our sense is that the next quarter may be our most difficult.”

A research firm, Global Insight, projects that industry sales will reach a low point in the second quarter, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14.8 million vehicles, before rebounding moderately later this year. The rate was 15.11 million in March, down from 16.29 million a year earlier, according to the Autodata Corporation, an industry statistics firm.

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