Car sales go “clunk” in September
Regular readers will recall that we predicted this: With the “cash for clunkers” incentives now history, car sales are falling back to the abysmally low levels they reached early this year. The Associated Press reports that General Motors’ September sales were down 45 percent, Chrysler’s down 42 percent and Ford’s down 5 percent. (The comparisons are with September of last year.) Toyota and Nissan had declines of 13 percent and 7 percent, respectively, and Bloomberg says the industry’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate fell to 9.3 million, essentially where it was before the clunkers program.
GM executive Mark LaNeve sounds somewhat surprised. The AP quotes him as saying:
It was a more difficult month than we anticipated.
He should have listened to Glenn MacDonald, the Washington University economist I quoted in an early-August column. MacDonald told me:
The total number of cars sold isn’t going to go up an inch. You’re just moving it around in time. You are going to sell more cars now and fewer cars later.
The September numbers prove MacDonald right. By the way, the Brits aren’t listening either. Their government is extending a “cash for bangers” scheme to cover an additional 100,000 vehicles.
(4 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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David Nicklaus has covered St. Louis business for more than 25 years. His column appears three days a week on the Post-Dispatch business page. 
Dear Post Dispatch: Thank you for patting yourself on the back for this great investigative report. A total non-business idiot would have made the same prediction. So here is a free one for you. Send someone out of the office and ask 5-10 area car dealers have they received their money back as yet….Now that will be a story. I’ll wait and watch for your reports…
I think just about all of us saw this coming, except the Obamacons who I defy anyhone to prove they have brains.
HOPE AND CHANGE!
GM surely does not help its image problem when an executive basically admits that GM still can’t forecast properly. More of the same, except now the US taxpayers are holding the hand grenade (er, bag).
anyone find it strange that the owner, which has been the same owner for 20 plus years, of Royal Gate Dodge committed suicide on Monday? I’m surprised the post didn’t make a story of that.
Thanks for reporting this piece of truth. Yes, the predictions from economists rings with an element of practical wisdom we all did (or should have) also predicted. However, most media outlets (including the STL PD) bow at the company line Obama hands out. How many members of congress, plus BHO and the VP, were touting how “successful” cash for clunkers was. At least the evidence is being published here, and I appreciate Mr. Nicklaus sharing it us. Hopefully the Obamabots will take the time to read this, without dismissing it, before they move on to the daily propaganda.
Does this article surprise you? It shouldnt. Any person with common sense would have realized two things.
One, the sale of cars post cash for clunkers would plummet
two, the intrinsic price of vehicles will be reduced in the mind of the consumer.
NOW THE REAL QUESTION>>>> Do you want your health care managed by the same people who dreamed up the cash for clunkers. Job for life government employees have no idea about how the real world works.
While I agree with your basic premise that C4C shifted the timing of car sales rather than generate a large increase in sales, and that everyone should have expected sales in September to drop, you report only half the story. This seems to be a trend on this blog. I would like to see you do complete reporting on the story. While GM’s and Chrysler’s drops are horrific, how do Ford’s sales compare in terms of overall trends? Is it an improvement over performance in the months before C4C? What about the car companies that reported large increases in sales, such as Hyundai and Kia? I realize that blogs by their very nature do not encourage in-depth reporting, but I find no evidence that the Post-Dispatch has made any attempt to tell a complete story.
This is exactly why politicians shouldn’t extend the housing credit, it is only moving the timeline of sales at the outright expense of taxpayers. If we are going to spend money, why not rebuild the roads and rebuild that we drive on to and from our jobs? At least I can drive on a smooth road instead of wondering if the vehicle in front of me was bought with the help of my tax dollar. But I should know better, Politicians are too busy to worry about actually job creation that creates infrastructure that will support economic activity and is here for the next 20, 30 years or longer.
The dual purposes of C4C was to get some “junk” off the streets and infuse cash into the system immediately. It did both.