New-car sales fell in September as the predicted post-"cash for clunkers" slump dragged the U.S. market down to its lowest sales rate in seven months.
Without government cash on the table, worried consumers shunned dealership lots, buying just 745,997 cars and light trucks, a 23% slide from a year earlier, when 964,873 vehicles were sold.
Calculated on an annualized basis, September sales ran at just a 9.22-million-unit clip, according to Autodata Corp. That's the lowest level since February, when the annualized rate was 9.12 million, a sign that consumers remain cautious about spending in the midst of a weak job market.
Industry experts say sales of new vehicles should total at least 12 million units a year in order to replace vehicles that are scrapped or no longer used. In recent years, annual sales have been much higher than that, staying above 16 million units for most of this decade.
"Consumer spending and sentiment are still weak," said Mike DiGiovanni, chief sales analyst at General Motors Co., which saw its September sales fall 44.8% compared with a year earlier. He attributed a portion of the decline to the "clunkers hangover," but also pointed at economic indicators. "We're clearly not going to be completely out of the woods for a while."
Nearly every major automaker reported declines for the month. Chrysler Group reported a 42.1% decline, Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales fell 12.6%, Honda Motor Co.'s were down 20.1% and Nissan deliveries were off 7%.
The only large automakers to report year-over-year increases were Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., with increases of 27.2% and 24.4%, respectively, on a combined total of just over 53,000 units purchased.
The dismal tallies compare with an overall industry sales increase of 1% in August, when the government's vehicle sales stimulus program offered vouchers of as much as $4,500 to trade in old cars for new ones. Roughly 700,000 new cars were sold as a result of the program, which ended Aug. 24.
"Cash for clunkers is behind us. Maybe we'll never have to mention it again," said George Pipas, chief sales analyst at Ford Motor Co., which saw its sales slide 5.8%. Although he believed that the termination of the government incentive hurt sales in September, he didn't expect much of a future effect. "No excuses," Pipas said.
For its part, GM said it had calculated that a total of 200,000 sales that would have occurred later were pulled into the clunkers sales period. Of those, it said, 70,000 would otherwise have been registered in September.
