Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! We hope the thrillseekers at GM and Ford have their safety harnesses on girdle-tight, because they're pulling like 6gs from the freefall that was their September sales. Following on those big, inventory-busting employee discount programs, the companies experienced a year-to-year sales decrease of 24% (GM) and 20% (Ford), while Toyota, Honda and Nissan scored double-digit gains and Chrysler managed a 4% increase. The bulk of the decline has been blamed on a range of issues from "cyclical" downturns to hurricane Katrina to something called "unfavorable year-ago comparisons." Still, one GM analyst, using the "whew, the nuke was only a 10 megaton, not a 20 megaton" spin technique, called the figures bad, but not as bad as expected. Nice.
SUV sales tank in Sept. [The Detroit News]
Related:
Sales of Top 20 Best Selling Vehicles in US Rise Year to Year [internal]