Automobile Manufacture's Grim Outlook for 2009

Washington DC October 7, 2008; The AIADA newsletter reported that for the auto industry, September could be the start of a really bad stretch.

Last month, U.S. light-vehicle sales declined 26.6 percent, and industry executives glumly predict that a turnaround won't occur until 2010.

According to Automotive News, some analysts expect that U.S. sales this year could be as low as 13.0 million cars and trucks, a precipitous downturn from last year's 16.2 million.

Luxury-car customers seemed to be particularly affected by the news about the credit crunch, said Don Esmond, Toyota Motor Sales' senior vice president of automotive operations. "I think it certainly put the brakes on the consumers,"

Esmond said during a conference call with reporters last week. "We saw that particularly on the luxury side, where you had folks calling up and asking for deposits back because they lacked confidence."

Unlike the Detroit 3, Toyota has a captive finance company that still has ready access to capital for leases and consumer loans.

Nevertheless, floor traffic dropped sharply for most Toyota and Lexus dealers at the end of September.