September U.S. auto sales will plunge

[rickaren]

September U.S. auto sales will plunge, J.D. Power says

Posted Thursday, Sep 24, 2009, 4:03 pm in Employee News

U.S. auto sales are expected to plunge in September back to the worst levels of 2009 as buying dried up following the government’s cash for clunkers incentive program, J.D. Power and Associates said today, Reuters reported.

U.S. auto sales overall are expected to come in at a 9.2 million vehicle annualized rate and retail sales are forecast as the worst of the year, J.D. Power said. Its forecasts were based on sales through the first two-thirds of September, the story said. The overall rate would about equal the result from February, the worst annualized sales rate of the year. J.D. Power maintained its full 2009 and 2010 sales outlooks, Reuters said.

U.S. auto sales in July and August were boosted sharply by the government’s cash for clunkers program that provided incentives of up to $4,500 to consumers to turn in gas-guzzling vehicles and buy new more fuel-efficient vehicles, the news service said. Industry analysts widely expected a drop in the sales rate with the exhaustion of the program, which ended about three weeks into August. The U.S. monthly auto sales rate was about 14.1 million units in August, according to Autodata Corp., the story said. (Reuters/Automotive News)