Auto industry girds for another weak month

NEW YORK (AP) — The auto industry is preparing to report yet another month of rapidly slowing sales — possibly the worst in decades — as the same toxic combination of the credit crunch and the careening economy continue to keep consumers away from dealerships.

Automakers are scheduled to report October U.S. sales Monday. The automotive Web site Edmunds.com is projecting new vehicle sales plunged 29 percent from a year ago, to 872,000. That’s the lowest figure since January 1992, Edmunds auto analyst Jessica Caldwell said.

Some analysts say it’s possible Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. will surpass General Motors Corp. as the U.S. sales leader for the first time in history.

After reeling from a 32 percent drop in September sales, Toyota launched zero-percent financing on almost all of its models and could post decent sales as a result. Meanwhile, GM’s financing arm, GMAC, said it was tightening its lending standards to require a credit score of at least 700, potentially shutting out some buyers.

Many people took advantage of the Detroit automaker’s employee pricing offer that recently ended. The deal was credited with buoying August and September’s results but likely stole sales from October, said Tom Libby, senior director for industry analysis at J.D. Power and Associates’ Power Information Network.

“For GM this is going to be a difficult month,” Libby said.

J.D. Power is predicting a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate in October of between 11 million and 11.5 million.