By Kevin Krolicki and David Bailey
DETROIT (Reuters) - U.S. auto sales tumbled by more than 20 percent in September as showrooms emptied after a government-funded summer sales boom and Ford Motor Co
Sales for General Motors Co
GM sales dropped 45 percent while sales at Chrysler were off 42 percent.
Ford, meanwhile, managed to hold its sales decline to 5 percent despite low inventories and sharply reduced spending on incentives. It estimated that it gained 3 percentage points of market share to 15 percent of the U.S. market in September.
Hyundai Motor Co <005380.KS>, which has taken market share through the U.S. recession on a growing reputation for low-cost and high-quality vehicles, saw its sales jump 27 percent in September.
On the annualized basis tracked by analysts, industry-wide U.S. auto sales dropped to near 9 million vehicles in September, near the weakest point of a four-year downturn that the U.S. market hit in February.
By contrast, the August sales rate had been above 14 million, powered by the success of the U.S. government's "cash for clunkers" program and taxpayer-funded credits of up to $4,500 for consumers who traded in old vehicles.
"We believe consumer traffic at dealerships evaporated in the absence of the incentive program, which ended in August," Standard & Poor's equity analyst Efraim Levy said in a note. "However, we expect the September lull to be temporary, as the comparisons get easier and we see the economy improving."
'WE ARE NOT BLEEDING LIKE PEOPLE THINK'
Major automakers also held out hope for a gradual recovery in sales in the fourth quarter once dealer stocks of cars and trucks are built back up in the coming weeks.
"We are not bleeding like people think we are," said Fiat SpA
Marchionne, who spoke to reporters at Chrysler's headquarters outside Detroit, said a combination of factors including reduced incentive spending led to the depressed sales figures for September.
"The future is going to be a lot better," he said.
GM said it was sticking with plans to increase production in North America by 20 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter.
"September was a tough transitional month for the industry, and a difficult year-over-year comparison for GM," said Mark LaNeve, GM's North American sales chief. "Fortunately, the fourth quarter looks brighter and our year-over-year comparisons should look more favorable."
Ford shares ended 3.33 percent lower at $6.97 on the New York Stock exchange on a day when the Dow Jones industrial average fell by 2.1 percent.
U.S. sales for the three major Japanese automakers were also lower in September after gains in August during the short-lived cash-for-clunkers craze.
Honda Motor Co <7267.T> sales were down 20 percent in the month. Toyota Motor Co <7203.T> sales fell almost 13 percent. Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> sales were down 7 percent.
Auto industry tracking firm Edmunds.com estimated that the average discount on a new car was $2,557 in September, down about 12 percent from a year earlier.
That incentive spending is closely tracked by analysts and investors as a measure of the industry's pricing power and the pressure to move inventory.
(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki and David Bailey, editing by Matthew Lewis)
