December auto sales stall

General Motors said Monday that its Canadian sales for December dropped 19.5 per cent from a year ago as the economy sputtered and many auto companies reported weaker sales.

The company said it sold 21,000 cars and trucks in December, down from 26,090 in the same month of 2007. Trucks were down by 22.4 per cent, while car sales dipped 14.6 per cent.

For all of last year, the company's car and truck sales were off 11 per cent. Truck sales dropped 15.7 per cent, while car sales slid by 5.8 per cent.

Auto-sector analyst Dennis DesRosiers said the Canadian drop in sales at the end of the year was bound to happen.

"Canada has finally seen the serious sales declines which have prevailed in the U.S. for some months now," he said in a commentary.

"Canada had defied the U.S. trend up until October, but with November sales down 10.3 per cent and now December down 21.3 per cent, one can safely say that Canada too is in an automotive recession."

It was a tough December for most of the auto companies. Honda and Toyota both set record for their full-year sales, but their December sales were off year over year by 41 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.

DesRosiers said Ford's Canadian sales in December were down by 5.5 per cent from December 2007, while Chrysler's sales tumbled by almost 36 per cent.

There were some exceptions to the downward trend, as Volkswagen sales grew by 82.5 per cent for the month, with DesRosiers pointing to their new diesel products. He said Suzuki and Subaru were up 31.6 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively .

The figures were not good last month in the United States, with Ford Motor Co.'s domestic sales down 32 per cent. General Motors' sales dropped 31 per cent.

Honda and Toyota both posted December drops in sales of more than 35 per cent.