Projo Cars Blog

You name it - high gas prices, an economy all but in recession, politics as abnormal at the presidential level, the meltdown on Wall Street and the related stalled lines of credit, hurricane damage on the Gulf Coast - all worked together to make September the worst sales month in the auto industry since 1993.

For the first time in 15 years, U.S. monthly sales failed to reach one million vehicles,
Here are the grisly details according to Autodata: Toyota's U.S. sales were off 32 percent, Ford's were off 34 percent and Chrysler's fell 33 percent. Honda? Down 24 percent. Nissan? Down 37 percent.

General Motors reported a 16 percent decline - but that apparently was good new because analysts had been expecting a 24 percent decline in sales. Only in this terrible time could a 16 percent decline be seen as good news.

While the higher gas prices earlier this year cut into sales and caused a shift from SUVs and pickups toward smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles, the stalled economy and now the drying up of credit has really put a damper on sales.

Unless your credit is top notch, you just can't get a loan nowadays.

In 2007, nearly 83 percent of applications for auto loans in the United States were approved, according to CNW Marketing Research of Bandon, Ore., and reported in The New York Times.

As for deadbeats with credit scores in the basement, forget about it. Only 22 percent of subprime loans are getting through this year compared to 67 percent last year, according to the NYT story.

Where we go from here is anyone's guess. Is the bailout plan going to turn things around overnight? Hard to imagine consumer confidence bouncing back as though nothing has happened. That's not to say it will not come back. But at the very least it's going to take some time.

And that assumes that the bailout works.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

 Tags  Auto sales commentary

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