Cars Blog

February of 2009 has been a major headache for the top six car manufacturers in US. Sales sank for more than 37 percent, and it is the worst ever, since December of 1981.

To note, General Motors had the biggest decline among the giant car companies with 53.1 percent, Ford Motor with 49.5 percent decline and Chrysler who slide down 44.0 percent. Toyota sales also sank with 39.8 percent, while Honda and Nissan with 37 percent.

A sad but true fact, US monthly sales still failed to rise, since October 2007, along with the 15-month global economic recession. For three consecutive months, the year-over-year decline was 0.7 percent. As for the month of February, consumer’ confidence decreased due to the impact of the economic recession.

Despite car manufacturers’ efforts to boost their car sales by incentive spending by 15.9 percent, still, the industry suffers decline in sales. Last February, Ford was traumatized with the collapse of its bestseller vehicle, the F-series pick-up, with only 23,614 trucks purchased, a dramatic decrease of 55.1 percent from a year earlier.

General Motors and Chrysler companies are surviving with the $17.4 billion federal loans. They have forwarded their viability plans to the US Treasury Department last month and have made their request for additional funding. A committee of appointees by the President has deliberations on whether General Motors and Chrysler will still be given additional funding or will have to call their initial loans on due.

Meanwhile, Ford had announced that they survived without the help of the government because of enough liquidity.