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US auto sales dip to 28-year low

05 March 2009 12:45 (UTC +04:00)

Bakuâ€“ APA-Economics. Despite their offers of deeper discounts, automakers had more trouble luring American shoppers into showrooms in February, with vehicle sales falling to their lowest level in 28 years, IHT reported.
Auto companies, which reported sales figures Tuesday, had hoped the market would start to stabilize after months of falling sales.
Instead, industry sales slipped 4.9 percent from January and 41 percent from February of last year.
Sales for the month were down 53 percent at General Motors, 48 percent at Ford Motor, 44 percent at Chrysler, 40 percent at Toyota and 38 percent at Honda.
South Korean automakers, however, bucked the trend. Seoul-based Hyundai held its U.S. sales decline to just 1.5 percent last month, and its affiliate, Kia, eked out a 0.4 percent increase.
Sales in February represent an annualized rate of 9.1 million vehicles, the lowest figure recorded since December 1981, according to MotorIntelligence.com, which tracks sales.
The decline occurred even as companies discounted their vehicles by an average of $2,900 - an 8 percent jump from a month earlier, according to the auto research Web site Edmunds.com. Two years ago, the average incentive was about $2,200, Edmunds said.
GM and Ford both said the steep declines would force even more production cuts at their plants.
Meanwhile, in Japan, Honda and Mazda said Wednesday they may follow Toyota in asking to borrow money from Japan’s government to lend to U.S. car buyers, Bloomberg News reported.
The amount of any loan and the timing of the request to the state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation haven’t yet been determined, said Akemi Ando, a spokeswoman for Honda.
GM and Chrysler are subsisting on a combined $17.4 billion in government loans, and seeking another $21.6 billion in federal aid to avoid bankruptcy.