Ford, Toyota hit by sales slump

Detroit - Ford Motor's US sales plummeted 32% in December and Toyota's fell 37% as car and truck buyers continued to steer clear of showrooms due to the dismal economy.

Ford's sales for 2008 fell 21% from a year earlier, keeping the Dearborn automaker in third place in the US auto sales race, falling behind Japan's Toyota for the second straight year.

Toyota's 2008 sales fell 16% to 2.22 million, compared with Ford's 1.98 million.

Other automakers are to report US sales for December and the full year later Monday, and analysts expect an industrywide drop of up to 40 percent as consumers remain uncertain about the economy and their jobs.

Ford said on Monday it sold 138 458 light vehicles last month, down from 204 787 in December 2007. But even though its sales were dismal, Ford said it expects to fare better than the industry overall.

The auto Web site Edmunds.com predicted sales for the full year will total just over 13 million, down 18 percent from 2007 and the lowest level since 1992.

Poor industry sales continue to mean good deals for consumers, though. Aaron Bragman, automotive marketing research analyst for IHS Global Insight in Troy, Michigan, said large incentives such as zero percent financing and rebates will continue well into 2009 as automakers try everything they can to boost sales.

Full-size truck incentives ran from $7 000 to $8 000 in December, and Bragman expects that to continue all year as the economy fails to improve.

"You look in the paper and the deals on brand new GM pickups are astonishing," he said. "The discount that you get buys a heck of a lot of gasoline."

One automaker, Hyundai Motor America, is trying to woo skittish buyers by promising to let them return cars free for up to a year if they lose their jobs and can't make the payments.

- AP