11:30PM New York – Auto sales in September dropped to a new low in the year. Japanese auto sales declined less than the domestic makers.

The U.S. auto sales fell in September to the lowest level seen in 15 years as consumers face tighter credit conditions, higher cost of gasoline and difficult economic conditions. General Motors retained the leading position in the domestic sales followed by Toyota Motor and Ford. Honda suffering less than Ford is expected to be third largest seller replacing Ford by the end of the year.

Sales in the month declined to 12.5 million from January seasonally adjusted sales of 15.37 million vehicles and 16.2 million a year ago. The lowest monthly annual sales for the year so far for the year as light truck sales fell from 8.04 million vehicles to 6.31 million. Of the total sales, domestic made vehicles including cars and light trucks were 9.44 million and imported vehicles were 3.06 million.

Sales of passenger cars in the month were 479,531 units, a decline of 21.6% from a year ago and light trucks sales fell 31% to 485,342 units with a total of 964,873 units. The total sales declined 26.6% from 1,314,982 units.

In the first nine months, cars and light truck sales declined 12.8% to 10.7 million vehicles of which passenger car sales fell 4.1% and light truck sales declined 20.6%.


Domestic Automakers Sales Decline

General Motors (GM) sales in the month declined 16% to 284,300 vehicles, best monthly sales in 2008. GM’s third quarter sales were up 4% to 828,000 vehicles higher than second quarter sales of 799,000 vehicles. The employee discount promotion extended to all buyers has supported sales gains.

GM has aggressively managed inventories to historically low levels. In September, only 717,000 vehicles were in stock the lowest September in a decade down about 179,000 vehicles or about 20% compared with last September. There were about 275,000 cars and 442,000 trucks including crossovers in inventory at the end of September.

Ford Motor Company (F) September sales plunged 34% to 116,734 from 176,204 vehicles a year ago. Total truck sales declined 39.5% to 76,281 from 125,992. Sales for Volvo fell 52% to 4,054 compared to 8,408. Crossover utility vehicles sales decreased to 27% to 18,858 from 25,829. Sport Utility Vehicles also fell 57% to 7,143 compared with 16,517.

Chrysler LLC sales declined in the month to 107,349 vehicles from 159,799 vehicles. Total car sales declined 21.9% to 31,059 from 39,744 a year ago and light truck sales fell 36.5% to 76,290 from 120,055 vehicles. Total sales for the nine months declined 25% to 1,183,519 from 1,578,823.

Japanese Makers Sales Decline Too

Japanese auto makers’ sales declined 30% from a year ago.

Toyota motor sales in September declined 32.3% to 144,260 units from 213,042 units in the same period a year earlier and for the first nine months sales declined 10.4% to 1.79 million units.

Honda sales in the month plummeted 24% to 96,626 units from 127,200 units a year ago and in the first nine months declined 1.1% to 1.18 million vehicles.

Nissan Motor Company vehicles sales in the month plunged 36.8% to 59,565 units from 94,269 units from the same period a year ago and fell in the first nine months 785,693 vehicles.

Mitsubishi Motors vehicles sales in the month plunged 39% to 7,378 units compared with 12,102 last year and for the year dropped 24% to 80, 105 units.

Sales for Mazda and Isuzu tumbled 35.6% to 16,169 units and 54.3% to 258 units respectively.


European Makers Sales

Volkswagen Group of America Inc unit sales declined 8.2% to 24,937 from 27,151 a year ago. Vehicles branded Audi unit sales declined 5.4%, Volkswagen fell 9.4% and Bentley sales rose 24%.