This winter may be a good time to buy a new car.

[randomness]

Winter is usually a slow time for car dealers, so it's often a good time for a buyer to drive a hard bargain. This winter looks like it'll be even better than usual, because those dealers are lean and hungry.

From http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/10/auto-sales-tank.html:

Auto sales, which were weak over the past 11 months, simply went into freefall in September:

• Ford Motor posted a 34% drop. Their truck and van sales fell 39%, SUV sales plummeted 57% and F-series truck sales dropped 42%.


• Honda reported a 24% decline in sales;


• Toyota U.S. Sept. sales drop 32.3%, light truck sales dropped 38%


• Lexus sales -- Toyota's luxury nameplate -- fell 37.7%;


• Chrysler U.S. September sales fall 33%


• Volvo sales slumped 51.8%;


• Porsche tumbled 45%;


• General Motors sales down 15.6% (better than the expectations of -26%)

According to the Detroit Free Press, the seasonally adjusted annual SAAR for the past decade has ranged between 14 million and 17 million vehicles. Since December, the SAAR has been in a free-fall, and September now looks like its going to hit 13 million annualized sales. Edmonds.com noted that the last time fewer than 1 million new vehicles were sold in a month was February 1993.

In a related Reuters story, a new study says that nearly 1 in 5 car dealerships could fail.

Comments

[awfief.livejournal.com]

OMG it's a crisis! how come Congress isn't bailing automakers out with [more] subsidies?

[evilmagnus]

They just did, didn't they? I vaguely recall GM getting a few billion in loan guarantees recently. Not that will stop Congress from giving them more... ;)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

$25 billion, for both Ford and GM.

From http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE48Q2WI20081001:

President George W. Bush on Tuesday signed into law a mammoth spending bill to keep the government running until early March 2009 that includes a $25 billion loan package for troubled automakers.

The $25 billion loan package, the biggest federal subsidy for the auto industry since the 1980 bailout of Chrysler, cleared Congress last weekend when the focus was on the debate over the $700 billion financial rescue package.