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September 5, 2008 11:07:28 PM CDT

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Analysts See Steep Sales Slide for Big 3 in '08

Posted Nov 19, 07 7:49 AM CST in Business 

(Newser) – Automakers are predicting a mildly soft sales year for 2008, but analysts warn a “poverty effect” caused by an imploding housing market could send US light auto sales skidding as much as 9.4% to their worst year since 1993, Reuters reports. “I’m just not sure how bad it could be,” said one. “We all know housing is a debacle.”

The Big Three predict sales of 15.5 to 16 million units for 2008, but analysts at the Reuters Auto Summit were more pessimistic, saying sales could drop to between 14.5 million and 15.5 million units from this year’s 16 million. And, they said, 0% financing and huge discounts are no more; expect production cuts instead as automakers get “smaller and faster.”

Source Reuters

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An unidentified shopper looks over unsold 2008 Yukons on the lot of a GMC Truck dealership in the small northwest Colorado community of Meeker on Oct. 26, 2007. An uncertain housing market and high oil...   (Associated Press)
A customer walks past a Ford Fusion car at S & C Ford in San Francisco in this July 16, 2006 file photo. Auto industry analysts predict another slow month for the industry in October, with Ford Motor...   (Associated Press)
Unsold 2007 Ram pickup trucks sit at a Dodge dealership in the southeast Denver suburb of Centennial, Colo.   (Associated Press)
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