7:35PM New York – Vehicle sales decline accelerated in November as more customers avoided purchase of automobiles. Luxury, domestic and imported car sales fell sharply in the month.

Tight lending conditions, weak consumer confidence and rising unemployment and lack of incentives dragged auto sales to a new low. The vehicle sales are now running at nearly 26-year low as automakers battle with excess capacity and teeter on bankruptcy.

The U.S. auto sales are now running at 10.2 million seasonally adjusted annual sales and are likely to dip further if economy weakens more.

Total vehicles sales in November plunged 37% to 746,789 from 1.2 million in the month a year ago. Passenger car sales in the month fell 36.5% to 359,076 and light truck sales declined to 37% to 387,713.

Domestic automakers took the biggest hit in sales but sales at Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mercedes and BMW fell more than 30% in the month.

In the first eleven months total passenger car sales declined 8.3% to 6.36 million and light truck sales fell 23.4% to 5.989 million. Total vehicles sales including passenger cars and light trucks declined 16.3% to 12.34 million in the period.

American Honda, Kia Motors, Hyundai Motor America are the only auto companies where passenger car sales are up 2.2%, 5.1% and 3.2% respectively in the first eleven months of the year. Maserati passenger cars and Suzuki light truck sales are up 1.9% and 16% for the year.

BMW Mini sales for the year are up 31% and Rolls Royce sales increased 29%, bucking the falling sales trend.

The declining sales trend is likely to persist at least three more months and December sales are expected to be between 35% and 40% lower from a year ago. For the year 2008 total vehicle sales are expected to fall 20% near 13 million unit sales.

For the year 2009, 123jump.com is estimating total vehicle sales to be below 9.6 million vehicles.

Domestic Automakers Sales Plunge

General Motors (GM) November sales declined 41.3% to 153,404 vehicles from 263,654. Sales for the eleven months fell 21.9% to 2.73 million from 3.50 million.

Passenger car sales in the month declined 44.1% to 58,786 and light truck sales fell 39.4% to 94,618. For the year so far, sales of passenger car declined 14.8% to 1.17 million and light trucks sales dropped 26.5% to 1.56 million. Truck sales declined 39% to 96,091.

Despite weaker market of November, Chevrolet Malibu total sales were up 31% compared to November 2007.

Ford Motor Company (F) September sales plunged 30.6% to 123,222 from 177,485 vehicles a year ago. Total truck sales declined 29% to 81,546 from 114,819. Sales for Volvo brand fell 46.5% to 4,404 compared to 8,227. Crossover utility vehicles sales decreased to 33.8% to 22,016 from 33,271. Sports Utility Vehicles dropped 39.8% to 10,586 from 17,575 a year ago.

Chrysler LLC sales declined 47.1% to 85,260 vehicles from 161,088 vehicles. Total car sales declined 56.8% to 20,426 from 47,314 a year ago and light truck sales fell 43% to 64,834 from 113,774 vehicles. Total sales for the nine months declined 27.7% to 1,363,309 from 1,885,227 in the same period a year ago.

Japanese Auto Sales Decelerate Too

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

Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc (TM) sales in November declined 33.9% to 130,307 units from 197,189 units in the same period a year earlier and for the first eleven months sales declined 13.4% to 2.07 million units.

American Honda Motor Company Inc (HMC) sales in the month plummeted 31.6% to 76,233 units from 111,431 units a year ago and in the first eleven months declined 5.4% to 1.34 million vehicles.