Filed under: By the Numbers
Sales for the month of October 2008 were... ahem... not good. The auto industry in the U.S. has found a way to slide further into oblivion with only a few bright spots from Audi and MINI, the latter of which enjoyed monster sales last month we suspect on account of greater production capacity this year versus October 2007.

While all the major players were down, General Motors, the largest of them all, was hit the hardest. Its sales volume for October 2008 fell 45% compared to last year. It went from selling an average of 11,923 cars per day in October 2007 to just 6,318 last month. Each of its brands were down, with HUMMER taking the Biggest Loser crown (yet again). The real story, however, is how close behind the other brands were, with Cadillac falling 55.1%, Buick 46.3%, Chevy 40.3%, GMC 52.5%, Pontiac 48.2% and Saturn 54.6%.

What can account for GM's entire brand portfolio taking such a hit? GMAC, the financing arm of General Motors that's majority owned by Cerberus. Halfway through the month GMAC decreed it would only lend money only to buyers with a credit score above 700, which effectively wiped out in-house financing for the majority of GM customers. While dealers could still work with banks to secure financing (and were encouraged to do so), it appears the damage wrought by GMAC could not be undone.

#comparechart { border: 2px solid #333; border-collapse: collapse; } #comparechart td { padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; vertical-align: top; margin: 0; line-height: 1.3em; font-size: 80%} #comparechart th { font-size: 80%; font-weight: bold; text-align: left; padding: 4px; background: #eee; } #comparechart th.mainth { font-size: 75%; border-bottom: 1px solid #333; } #comparechart td.red { background-color: #f08c85; } #comparechart td.green { background-color: #b3e2c4; } #comparechart td.yellow { background-color: #ffffcc;} BY THE NUMBERS - October 2008 Brand Vol. % Change Total Sales 10/08 Total Sales 10/07 DSR % Change Daily Avg. 10/08 Daily Avg. 10/07 Acura
-21.56% 10,108 12,886 -24.46% 374 496 Audi 0.3% 7,443 7,420 -3.4% 276 285 BMW -13.9% 20,203 23,451 -17% 748 902 Buick -46.3% 7,642 14,231 -48.3% 283 547 Cadillac -55.1% 9,541 21,267 -56.8% 353 818 Chevrolet -40.3% 107,313 179,825 -42.5% 3,975 6,916 Chrysler -50.8% 19,903 40,440 -52.6% 737 1,555 Dodge -34.4% 53,267 39,622 -29.5% 1,973 1,524 Ford -27.9% 114,969 159,361 -30.5% 4,258 6,129 GMC -52.5% 21,109 44,456 -54.3% 782 1,710 Honda -25.66% 75,756 101,913 -28.41% 2,806 3,920 HUMMER -64.6% 1,368 3,864 -66% 51 149 Hyundai -31.1% 20,820 30,232 -33.7% 771 1,162 Infiniti -28.5% 7,112 9,954 -31.2% 263 383 Jeep -32.9% 21,360 31,856 -35.4% 791 1,225 Kia -38.5% 15,483 25,185 -40.8% 573 969 Lexus -35.2% 16,283 25,119 -37.6% 603 966 Lincoln -27.7% 7,399 10,229 -30.3% 274 393 Mazda -25.9% 16,442 22,201 -28.7% 609 854 Mercedes-Benz -34.3% 14,996 22,820 -36.7% 555 878 Mercury -47.4% 6,753 12,844 -49.4% 250 494 MINI 56.4% 5,272 3,370 50.6% 195 130 Mitsubishi -19.3% 7,486 9,280 -22.3% 277 357 Nissan -33.5% 49,833 74,992 -36% 1,846 2,884 Pontiac -48.2% 13,054 25,182 -50% 483 969 Porsche -50.1% 1,427 2,862 -52% 53 110 Saab -13.2% 1,975 2,275 -16.4% 73 88 Saturn -54.6% 8,583 18,908 -56.3% 318 727 Subaru NA Suzuki -46.7% 3,482 6,536 -48.7% 129 251 Toyota -21.3% 135,818 172,473 -24.2% 5,030 6,634 Volkswagen -7.9% 15,889 17,260 -11.4% 588 664 Volvo -52.1% 3,717 7,761 -53.9% 138 299 COMPANIES BMW Group -5%
25,475
26,821
-8.5%
944
1,032
Chrysler LLC -34.9% 94,530 145,316 -37.4% 3,501 5,589 FoMoCo -30.2% 132,838 190,195 -32.7% 4,920 7,315 General Motors -45% 170,585 310,008 -47% 6,318 11,923 Honda America -25.2%
85,864
114,799
-28%
3,180
4,415
Nissan NA -33% 56,945 84,947 -35.4% 2,109 3,267 Toyota Mo Co -23%
152,101 197,592 -25.9% 5,633 7,600 October 2008 had 27 selling days versus 26 selling days for October 2007By the Numbers - October 2008: "Thanks, GMAC!" Edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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