auto sales crash in January

[© tweed]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7868141.stm

Ford, General Motors (GM) and Chrysler have all reported a sharp fall in US sales in January, as industry-wide American sales fell to a 27-year low.

Sales at Ford plunged 42% last month, compared with a year earlier, while those at GM declined 49%, and Chrysler was hit by a fall of 55%.

GM and Chrysler needed a $17.4bn (£12bn) rescue package from the US government in December.

[Speed of Sound]

Vae! What a horrible month! One can only hope that the Euro sales numbers are not this bad...thats simply miserable any way you look at it. What did last months numbers look like? Anything like this?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Obviously that auto bailout money was money well spent.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     It was fairly obvious that that would happen.

[Marokai Backbeat]

It's not like we were going to hand them money and magically sales would shoot up. People can't afford to buy cars, therefore, sales go down.

[Torie]

They're dead Jim. How much is the funeral going to cost?

[opebo]

They're dead Jim. How much is the funeral going to cost?

Oh come on Torie, that's a senseless post.  These corporations are being bankrupted by a macroeconomic condition - a depression.  Did the Great Depression mean that auto manufacturing would forever be an untenable business?  No, by the late 1940s cars were being made at a fine profit once again.

Its just silly to claim that particular corporations are somehow unworkable just because they cannot weather spectacularly bad government economic management (deflation/depression). 

[2952-0-0]

Wow, this is straight out of an economic porn flick (if there's such a thing).

[MK]

They're dead Jim. How much is the funeral going to cost?

Oh come on Torie, that's a senseless post.  These corporations are being bankrupted by a macroeconomic condition - a depression.  Did the Great Depression mean that auto manufacturing would forever be an untenable business?  No, by the late 1940s cars were being made at a fine profit once again.

Its just silly to claim that particular corporations are somehow unworkable just because they cannot weather spectacularly bad government economic management (deflation/depression). 

Actually ford and Gm have been going down hill since the early 90's when the import cars became a more viable option.  The truck sales of both have kept them afloat ,also the SUV craze in the late 90's helped.  The current economic conditions are just throwing the final pile of dirt on the grave.    Can they rebound like post great depression?   Yes, but they'd have to drastically change which neither are willing to do.

Honda, Toyota and BMW are your new big 3.

[dead0man]

I'm still trying to figure out what they did with all the cash they made off the SUV boom.  They certainly didn't reinvest it in R&D for efficient vehicles like they should have.  If they can't run their companies, they don't deserve to stay in business.  Bankruptcy is the correct option here, sell off the assets, let the buyers of the assets make cars.  Maybe they will do a better job.  If not, the next guy with a few billion to blow will give it a go.

[MK]

I'm still trying to figure out what they did with all the cash they made off the SUV boom.  They certainly didn't reinvest it in R&D for efficient vehicles like they should have.  If they can't run their companies, they don't deserve to stay in business.  Bankruptcy is the correct option here, sell off the assets, let the buyers of the assets make cars.  Maybe they will do a better job.  If not, the next guy with a few billion to blow will give it a go.

LOL made more SUVs

It's still sitting on the lots in the form of more big SUVs that they can't seem to sell.

[Punditty]

I think this will help, if it ever makes it into law:

(from the Seattle Times)


The vote was 71-26 to allow many car buyers to claim an income tax deduction for the cost of automobile sales taxes and interest payments on car loans.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said the plan would aid the beleaguered automobile industry as well as create jobs at a time the economy is losing them at a rapid rate. "I believe we can help by getting the consumer into the showroom," she said.

[opebo]

The armchair quarterbacking here is hilarious.

[MK]

The armchair quarterbacking here is hilarious.

Nobody is being theoretical here.  You are trying to come up with a out of the way intellectual argument for an answer that is simple.   The American automakers are old news, and have pretty much dropped the ball and allowed others( being imported makers) to boot them off the stage.   The current economic depression or whatever you call it is the last straw.   The days of the 12mpg 35K SUV is over.     


Maybe something like a new "K car" will help bring back sales.   
 

[dead0man]

I think the K car was part of the problem.  Pieces of sh**t, all of 'em.  They told us to "buy American", we did and we were dissapointed.  I know they helped "save" Chyrsler, but really, those cars sucked rocks compared to the Toyota's and Honda's of the same time.  Hell, now-a-days I think I see more Escorts and Cavaliers from that era than I do K cars.  On that same line, I think I'm seeing more Feiros on the road now than I have at anytime in the last 15 years.  That probably has a lot to do with the plastic bodies and the ability to stick pretty much any common GM engine in them.  Even small block V8s.  How fast would a Fiero with a nicely modded 350 go?  Sick fast, that's the answer (assuming you had tires/suspension that could handle that kind of power).  Anybody else seeing a lot of Fieros on the road?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

More taxpayer money is being thrown around with that new car tax credit. Of course, once it expires, sales will be below what they would have been otherwise.