Automakers report on their poor January 2009 sales

February 3, 4:30 PMDC Car ExaminerBrady Holt

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The Pontiac G6's sales fell from nearly 14,000
in January 2008 to under 2,500 last month.

A 49 percent drop in General Motors sales in January 2009 compared to January 2008 was among the declines that dragged new car sales to their lowest level since 1982. 

GM saw collapsing demand for several of its volume leaders, including the Chevrolet Impala and Cobalt and the Pontiac G6, which had sold heavily to fleets.

Rental car agencies, which represent significant fleet sales, have cut back on purchasing as Americans travel less.

The Impala, a large family sedan that is typically among the best-selling cars in the country, saw its sales fall by more than 60 percent in January 2009 compared to January 2008, to just 7,060 units. The Cobalt compact car saw sales slide by 70 percent, and the Pontiac G6 midsize car saw a whopping 82-percent decline.

While it's not uncommon for low-volume vehicles to see large sales declines, with a relatively small difference in the number of vehicles sold amounting to a large percent, it is rare for cars that are ordinarily strong sellers to lose so many sales so quickly.

Chrysler, which halted new-vehicle production for Christmas and has left its plants largely idle since, saw an even bigger sales decrease, of 55 percent. Unlike GM, the company had no catastrophes bringing it down; rather, sales were down across the board with every product seeing a double-digit decline.

Also unlike GM, Chrysler had few high-volume vehicles that could see massive losses; its sales were largely unimpressive in January 2008, too.

But while no other automaker has seen a collapse among its bread-and-butter cars at the level of General Motors's, few have done well. Honda's sales fell 28 percent, Nissan's 30 percent, Toyota's 32 percent, and Ford's 39 percent. 

However, Hyundai (and its Kia subsidiary) posted a sales increase after sales of the midsize Sonata nearly doubled from January 2008 to 2009, the first time a major automaker other than Subaru has seen a sales increase in months. Subaru's sales also increased in January 2009 over 2008.

Large pickups continued to be the best-selling vehicles in the United States, with the Ford F-Series and Chevrolet Silverado continuing as the best-seller and runner-up, respectively.

And though passenger cars from Toyota and Honda saw steep sales declines, they continued to round out the best-seller list, along midsize sedans from Chevrolet and Nissan, the Honda CR-V small SUV, and the Dodge Ram full-size pickup.