– Ford sales fall 27 percent while Toyota skids 9 percent
In spite of offering increased and attractive incentives, sales of automobiles including Toyota recorded a fall in the month of August in US. There was a 9.4 percent decrease in sales according to Toyota Motor Corp of Japan. Ford Motor Co. recorded a drop of 27 percent in sales.
SUVs and trucks have dominated sales in Detroit so far. With the steady increase in fuel and gasoline prices however, people now prefer cars which are more fuel efficient. Weakening of economic conditions and the soft housing market has resulted in a fall in sales figures of the retail showrooms all over.
Jesse Toprak, executive director of the industry analysis for car shopping says we cannot expect any kind of a recovery through this year. Situation is pretty grim. According to a forecast by the research firm J.D. Power and Associates on the website Edmunds.com in the month of July, estimated sales of new light vehicles fell by 750,000 units.
Toyota, the automobile giant from Japan has till now withstood any economic slump and this is the first time this company is suffering from the recession. These difficult conditions forced giants like Ford and Toyota to reduce their sales targets. Ford scaled down their production for the second half by at least 50,000 vehicles.
Trading however saw Toyota shares going up by 76 cents standing at $89.59 and Ford shares by 8 cents at $4.59.