American car sales hit a 25-year-low in October as consumers stopped spending money on new vehicles – and the industry’s fortunes are predicted to only get worse.
The biggest victim was General Motors, whose sales for the month slid by a staggering 45pc, the largest fall among the mass manufacturers.
Only Porsche, the niche luxury marque, managed to out-slump GM, with sales off by 50pc last month.
Other brands to be hit included Nissan, down 33pc, and Mercedes-Benz 25pc lower.
The overall picture was a gloomy one with the lowest monthly sales level since 1983 compounding an already weak outlook for the industry, which is attempting to reconfigure itself to meet consumer demands for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
GM, which is in the midst of merger talks with smaller rival Chrysler, delivered just 170,585 vehicles in October, but said that its production forecast remain unchanged at 875,000 for the current three months to December 31.
“It was like someone turned off the lights in the month of October,” said GM’s head of North American sales Mark LaNeve.
Rival Ford saw sales fall by 30.2pc. Ford economist Emily Kolinski Morris commented: “The financial crisis has generated an abrupt constraint on economic activity,” adding that the company does not believe that the third-quarter represented the bottom of the downturn.
As opposed to GM, which is not cutting production, Ford said it could look at reducing production of cars by reducing overtime and hours at certain plants.
Separately, GM announced it has sold its reinsurance business to Maiden Holdings to bolster capital and add to its liquidity. Terms were not disclosed, but Maiden said it planned to raise $260m from a share issue to help fund the deal.
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