General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the biggest auto retailers in the U.S., said June sales plunged as consumers turned away from gas- guzzling trucks and found small cars in short supply.
GM sales fell 19 percent and Ford was down 28 percent. Toyota dropped 21 percent as the Japanese automaker wrestled with plummeting demand for Tundra pickups and a shortage of Prius hybrids. The industry's 18 percent decline was the steepest in almost six years.
The results demonstrate the rapid shift in buyers' preferences toward cars while $4-a-gallon gasoline has caught automakers flatfooted, said analyst Alan Baum. Car shortages combined with the weakest economic growth in five years depressed the annual sales rate to 13.6 million, the lowest since 1993.
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