For 2007, Toyota sold 2.62 million cars and trucks against Ford''s 2.572 million. GM sold 3.82 million.

In December, GM said sales of cars and light trucks stood at 319,837 compared with 334,501 reported in the year ago period. Sales of light trucks dropped 8% to 203,254 while car sales dropped 10% to 116,583, the company said. Consumers showed weaker interest in pick-up trucks and sport-utility vehicles.

Ford''s car sales plunged 24% in fiscal 2007, as some models like the Ford Mustang aged and a new Ford Taurus sedan was unable to match the volumes of the older version. Ford also cut rental-car sales by 32% over the year. Truck sales fell 5%. Ford sold 210,855 vehicles in December.

Toyota sold 224,399 vehicles in the month. The passenger-car sales fell 1.7% to 121,581 while light-truck sales fell 1.8% to 102,818. Toyota division sales for December fell 0.7% to 189,844. Lexus division sales fell 7.2% to 34,555.

Chrysler LLC sales rose 1% in December helped by brisk sales of the new Dodge Caravan minivan sales jumped 51%. Chrysler sales sank 3% for the year as falling truck and SUV sales erased gains in the car sales.

Honda, the second-largest Japanese automaker, sold 131,792 vehicles in December and 1.55 million vehicles for the year.

In December, Nissan sold 89,555 vehicles while full-year sales gained 4.8% to 1.07 million.

The major automakers, GM, Toyota and Ford warned of a sluggish 2008 amid consumer concern of high-energy prices and a weakening U.S economy.

In a conference call Thursday, officials at Toyota lowered growth forecasts to 1% and 2% in 2008 from the initial forecast of 3%.

Toyota said growth in hybrid vehicles sales could slow in 2008, after rising in 2007 almost exclusively on one model. Sales of the Prius, the best-selling hybrid by far, increased 69.4% in 2007 to 181,221. Toyota has targeted to sell almost 275,000 hybrids in 2008, about the same as 2007.

GM said it plans to build 950,000 vehicles in the first quarter in North America, down about 11% from a year earlier. In the fourth quarter, GM North America built a higher-than-expected 1.042 million vehicles, down 6% from a year ago.

Ford said it expects the economic atmosphere to """"""""remain challenging"""""""" in 2008. The company predicts the U.S. annualized auto sales in the range of 15.5 million to 16 million in the first half of next year, with light vehicle sales ranging from 15.2 million to 15.7 million.

Ford traded down 29 cents at $6.45 and GM fell 56 cents to $23.36 at 1:03 PM in New York.


11:15AM New York – Employment report dragged U.S. averages lower in the morning trading.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to its lowest level to 202.50 to 12,857.30, Nasdaq declined 75.02 to 2,527.65, and S&P 500 lost 25.54 to 1,421.62.

The Labor Department report on new job creations hurt the sentiment in the first two hours of trading. The payroll in December increased 18,000. For the year 2007 the economy added 1.3 million jobs after adding 2.3 million in 2006. The monthly average fell to 111,000 in 2007 from 189,000 in 2006.

The number of unemployed persons increased by 474,000 to 7.7 million in December and the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point to 5.0 percent. A year earlier, the number of unemployed persons was 6.8 million, and the jobless rate was 4.4 percent.

Both total employment, at 146.2 million, and the employment-population ratio, at 62.7 percent, decreased in December following increases in November. Total employment was essentially unchanged over the year, while the employment- population ratio declined by 0.7 percentage point over the same period.

Total nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged at 138.5 million in December following gains of 159,000 in October and 115,000 in November. In 2007, payroll employment rose by 1.3 million compared with a gain of 2.3 million in 2006.

The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index declined in December to 53.9 from 54.1 in November. The index still shows an expansion in the service sector but at a slower pace.