The last time auto sales were this bad, the U.S. had just gone to war in Iraq -- for the first time.
Total U.S. automobile sales in October slumped to 838,156 cars and light trucks, a 32% decline from the same month last year. That's the lowest single-month sales figure since January 1991, when Operation Desert Storm began under President George H.W. Bush.
It was the slowest month yet in a horrible year for automakers that have found themselves pummeled again and again by high gasoline prices, low consumer confidence and frozen credit markets. And as an important indicator of that crucial spot where industry meets consumers' wallets, the results are a fresh reminder of the troubled state of the economy.
General Motors Corp. led the charge to the bottom. The largest U.S. automaker reported a 45% decline in sales for the month compared with October 2007, dropping to 166,744 vehicles sold. That's the first time the automaker's monthly sales have fallen below the 200,000 mark since 1975, when nearly 100 million fewer people lived in the U.S.
"I've never seen a month like this," said Mark LaNeve, GM's U.S. sales and marketing chief. "It was like somebody turned off the lights in October."
Other automakers fared little better. Ford Motor Co. reported a 29% sales decline, while Chrysler was down nearly 35%. Among the imports, Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales were off 23% and Honda Motor Co.'s were down 25%. Nissan Motor Co. said its sales declined 33%, while European automakers combined were down 18%.
From January through October, industry sales fell 14.6% compared with the first 10 months of last year, according to Autodata Corp., putting the industry on a pace to sell about 13.5 million vehicles this year. That's a huge decline from 2007, when Americans bought 16.1 million vehicles.
"We are nowhere near mentioning that this is the bottom," said Jesse Toprak, executive industry analyst at Edmunds .com, who like other experts suggested that 2009 could be as bad as this year, if not worse.
Soaring gasoline prices played a role in slowing sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles. But just as prices at the pump started to drop, the credit crisis emerged -- making it difficult for carmakers to fund operations, dealers to acquire inventory and consumers to get loans for purchases.
