Everybody knew it was coming, but the extent of the disintegration of the US automotive market came clearly into view today as automakers reported their sales figures for June. During a month when the national average price of gasoline topped an average of four bucks, what does one expect? Well ? how about an 18.8% decline in sales. Fercrissakes, the Hummer brand saw a year-over-year fall of almos   ...read more

It seems BMW is not the only manufacturer that is not happy about the proposed CAFE standards and saying something about it. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, representing nearly 80 percent of the new vehicle market in the U.S., including Chrysler, GM, Ford, Toyota, BMW and five other automakers, told the NHTSA its plans are [...]   ...read more

Toyota’s June sales results are in and, as expected, the Japanese automaker experienced a significant drop off. Toyota’s overall June sales were down 11.5 percent, representing the company’s biggest decline of 2008. The Toyota brand sold 172,981 vehicles in June, down 10.3 percent from June 2007. Toyota’s passenger car sales were actually up 4.4 [...]   ...read more

To paraphrase John F. Kennedy (who probably stole the expression from someone else), a falling tide lowers all boats. Or, if you prefer, it looks like Toyota got keelhauled along with the rest of 'em this month. Automotive News [sub] also does nautical metaphorication, reporting that "Toyota Motor Corp. ran aground in June, with U.S. sales down 21.4 percent (unadjusted), the biggest drop of the ye   ...read more

Talk about the right place at the right time. Toyota's Yaris three-door hatchnack-- excuse me, three-door liftback-- and four-door sedan have been taking numbers and kicking names in the American new car market. Well, duh. First, Yari are fuel-efficient wee beasties (34/40 or fight). Second, despite a whole bunch of piggish SUVs, Toyota is still the small-car manufacturer of the moment. And third,   ...read more

In the wake of America’s mass exodus from trucks and SUVs to more efficient models, Toyota has announced that its Yaris five?door will be available in the U.S. for the 2009 model year. The five-door has been available in other markets since launch, but the U.S. has been limited to the three and four-door [...]   ...read more

You're going to be reading in the mainstream press about how horrible sales were in the U.S. during June, 2008. Yes, they were bad for many automakers, but consider that there were only 24 selling days last month versus 27 days in June, 2007. This makes comparing raw sales numbers misleading, since there were three fewer days to sell. Thus, as always, all the percentages below represent the change   ...read more