U.S. H1 new car sales fall 35%, hit by bankruptcy

New car sales in the United States dropped a year-on-year 35.1 percent in the first six months of 2009 amid a severe auto slump that sent Big Three automaker General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to file for bankruptcy protection, a U.S. research firm said in a monthly report Wednesday.

Sales by all automakers operating in the United States came to about 4.81 million units, with all of the six major U.S. and Japanese carmakers seeing sales declines of 30-40 percent, according to Autodata Corp.

The figures suggest U.S. car sales in the first half of the year are likely to have stayed below those in China and if the trend continues, the world's largest automaker will lose its long-held status to the Chinese market in terms of annual sales, industry watchers say.

In the reporting period, GM, which filed for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection June 1, saw a 40.3 percent fall in sales. Chrysler, which sought the same protection at the end of April, saw a decline of 45.7 percent. Sales at Ford Motor Co. fell 32.7 percent.

With consumer sentiment chilled amid the recession, Japanese carmakers with strength in marketing small fuel-efficient cars, also saw a deterioration in business.

Sales fell 37.9 percent at Toyota Motor Corp., 33.5 percent at Honda Motor Co. and 33.4 percent at Nissan Motor Co.

In June alone, total U.S. new car sales came to 859,847 units, down 27.7 percent from a year earlier.

The decline was smaller than 30 percent for the first time in nine months. But when converted into an annualized rate, the sales remained in the level of 9.69 million units, down from the level in May of 9.91 million units.