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US car sales drops to 50-year low

06 January 2009 12:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. U.S. auto sales plunged 36 percent in December, dragging the industryâ€™s volume in 2008 to a 16-year low as the recession ravaged demand. General Motors Corp.â€™s annual total was the smallest in its home market since 1959, Bloomberg reports.
Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. reported their first drop in full-year U.S. sales since the mid-1990s after December declines of at least 35 percent. Chrysler LLCâ€™s 53 percent dive last month led major automakers, while Ford Motor Co. slumped 32 percent and GM and Nissan Motor Co. fell 31 percent.
Vehicle sales for the year totaled 13.2 million, the fewest since 1992, according to industry-analysis firm Autodata Corp. in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Annual sales for 2007 were 16.1 million.
U.S. jobless rolls reached a 26-year high in the week ended Dec. 20, signaling a worsening labor market as the economy heads into the second year of a recession. That weakness adds to the strain on automakers after record fuel prices in 2008â€™s first half damped demand for full-size pickups and sport-utility vehicles.