March Car Sales: When Better Is Awful (GM)(F)(TMC)(HMC)

Like a number of other numbers which have come out in the last month, US light vehicle sales were slightly better than expected. Tell that to the US car companies which are still losing billions of dollars a month.

GM light-vehicle sales dropped to 155,334 from 280,713, a 45% plunge. There are a number of car analysts that think GM’s sales cannot recover while consumers are worried about a bankruptcy.

Car sales for the other Chapter 11 candidate, Chrysler, fell 39% to 101,001 from 166,386.

Sales at Honda dropped 39% to 88,379, and Toyota light vehicles sales were down 39% to 132,802.

The only “healthy” auto company in Ford (F) did not do terribly well, which means that it remains a candidate for government assistance later in the year. Its sales fell 41% to 131,102.

At this rate, US car companies won’t be able to cut costs fast enough to have any reasonable opportunity to breakeven in North America until yearly sales move up to the 12 million or 13 million level. At the current rate, car companies will be lucky if 1o million cars and light trucks are sold in the US during 2009.

Douglas A. McIntyre