Toyota closer to GM in Jan-Sept U.S. sales

Auto sales [in the U.S.] declined in September after the expiration of government stimulus program. For the year to date sales, General Motors led the industry sales with closely followed by Toyota and Ford. Chrysler and Honda are neck-to-neck in sales.

September auto sales declined sharply after the expiration of cash-for-clunkers program. The decline in truck sales was higher than in auto sales when compared to a year ago.

Despite the additional sales of 700,000 vehicles supported by the cash-for-clunkers program, 123jump.com has left its annual sales estimate unchanged between 9 million and 9.5 million.

For the first nine months, total light vehicle sales declined 27.4% to 7.814 million, passenger car sales dropped 25.2% to 4.167 million and light truck sales fell 29.7% to 3.647 million.

The monthly data are released by the industry research organization Autodata Corp based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

In September, total light vehicle sales decreased 22.7% to 0.746 million from 0.965 million a year ago period. Passenger car sales in the month fell 16.1% to 0.402 million and light truck sales dropped 29.2% to 0.334 million.

Of the twenty manufacturers not a single maker managed to increase sales in the month. Hyundai and Subaru managed to sell more cars in the first quarter also registered declines in April. In September, Rolls Royce also to increase its sales by 36.8% to 24 cars and Isuzu sales fell to zero.

For the year Isuzu led decliners with a sales plunge of 95.8% and three auto makers with the smallest increaser were Kia Motors of 3.0% and Subaru of 11.2% and Hyundai Motor sales declined of 0.7%.

Total annualized sales declined to 9.32 million units better than the lowest for the year 9.17 million units in February and plunged from 14.09 million in August of this year.

Sales in the month a year ago were 12.57 million units. 

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