Falling Gas Prices Do Little To Affect GM Slide

froosh — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:31:35 +0000

Falling gasoline prices were not enough to revive sales of SUVs and pickups in August as General Motors, Ford Motor and Toyota Motor all reported a sharp fall in sales once again. And Ford warned it sees even tougher times ahead.General Motors, the nation’s largest automaker, reported that sales tumbled 20% from year-ago levels. That wasn’t as bad as expected though — sales tracker Edmunds.com was forecasting a 28% drop.

In fact, August turned out to be GM’s best month this year. The company sold 307,285 vehicles thanks to a popular “employee pricing” incentive program which allowed any buyer to get a vehicle for the same cost as a GM employee. That offer, in place for the last third of the month, has been extended into September.

But there was plenty of weakness in the report as sales of light trucks, which includes pickups, SUVs and vans, tumbled 24% from a year ago.

DriveMojo.com

Falling Gas Prices Do Little To Affect GM Slide