Oh man, the car industry really must be in the shitter, because here I am writing about it again and you all know how interesting I find this topic. Interesting or not, today’s industry news frightens the crap out of me and it should cause you to run to the crapper too.
October’s sales have dropped by a whopping 32% over October 2007.
In the last few months, there have been bright spots and here in Canada, there are even a few improvements but south of the border the results are astoundingly poor.
To give you an idea, here are the drops by manufacturer by percentage:
Aston Martin -18.6%
BMW Group -5%
Chrysler LLC -24.5%
Ford -32.0%
General Motors -45.1%
American Honda -25.2%
Hyundai -34.5%
Mazda -25.9%
Mitsubishi -19.3%
Nissan -33.0%
Porsche -50.1%
Subaru -13.8%.
Suzuki -46.7%
Toyota -23.0%
VW -6.3%
What more can you say other than Wow. While most of us expect a drop from the traditional domestics, who wouldn’t be surprised to see a 45% drop from The General? Even the new master, Toyota has dropped 23%.
I’ll leave all the gory details for all the other journos who are into that stuff. I just can’t help wondering if the apocalypse is too far away. One thing is for certain, this is not a good indicator for the auto industry, or the economy as a whole.
Pass the toilet paper.
Story via Automotive News (subscription required)
Gary, I know that car sales figures are going down the pan, but did you really need to post a picture of you on the john 🙂
Come on now, readers like the mystic behind the writer, now they’ve seen you in all your glory that is lost.
Oh, and by the way, you told me you were nearly finished your bathroom renovations, where’s the bidet? Where do you wash your socks? 🙂
BMW Group was down -5%. BMW, the brand, was down 13.9%, Mini reported a sales increase of 56%-go Mini!
I was watching the new season of Top Gear last night, they were saying on HIGH END sports cars they were loosing more then half their value in under 12 months.
If I were a rich man I’d be snapping up some gently used sports cars to either love or sell in the future with profit.
A.
BTW, that picture needs a not lunch safe warning.
Tom, the other big winner is apparently VW which has been somewhat saved by Audi sales. Diesel anyone?
I’m with Andre, when times get tough, the toys get sold. If anyone has any spare money laying around, then there could be some real bargains coming up in the near future.
Mind you, I’m not so sure that it will effect the enthusiast market as much as people think, especially the lower priced stuff, like the new Challenger. I think some people might adjust their sights downwards a little, but the true enthusiast will still want something to keep a smile on his face during the tough times. People like to buy themselves out of a depressed mood, they just shop at different places!
Oh, and Gary, sorry about my first post, but I simply couldn’t resist it 🙂
Crash, you should know by now that you’ll have to go a lot further than that to embarrass me!