If You Have the Money, You May Want to Shop for a New Car

If you have cash in the bank, now may be the time to buy that new car.  And if you need that car loan, hopefully the Congressional financial rescue will loosen up the credit market so you can buy that new auto.  Hopefully, those getting those loans will buy within their means so they can make the car payments and not have it repossessed. 

According to reports from Detroit:"For the first time since 1993, automakers sold fewer than a million new cars and trucks in a single month in the United States, as a reeling economy scared people away from showrooms in September, and many eager buyers were unable to get loans." Industry sales dropped "26.6 percent over all compared with a year ago," making car companies more "likely to cut more production and jobs to compensate for falling revenues."

From the Autodata Corp.'s survey, "the seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate was 12.5 million units down from 16.19 million in September 2007.  Most jarring for the industry may have been the severe drop for Japanese automakers, widely considered the strongest players in the U.S. market, especially in the small-car segment." In September, Toyota Motor Corp. sales fell 32.3 percent, while "Honda Motor Co. dropped 24 percent and Nissan Motor Co. saw its North America sales tumble 37 percent. Those declines reflect the depth of the recession in U.S. auto sales as well as some strategic missteps, including Toyota's recent foray into a struggling pickup truck market." 

Don C. Brunell, President (DonB@awb.org)