Economic Crisis Hits Auto Industry Hard

While high gas prices and increasingly tight credit have been pummeling most automakers for the past six months, today we find out that nearly every nameplate took a huge hit in sales in September thanks to the current economic climate.

As for the Detroit Three, Ford saw the biggest plunge, at 34%, followed closely by Chrysler at 33%. GM, buoyed by a huge Employee Pricing sale, only lost 16% and actually gained in market share.

The Detroit Three’s losses were somewhat expected, but imports didn’t fare any better. Nissan led the pack with sales that were down 37%. Toyota was down 30%, and Honda sank 20%. Korean automaker Hyundai makes a lot of small, efficient cars and had been seeing steady sales all summer, but it was down 25% in September.

Luxury automakers also took their lumps, with BMW taking the hardest hit: a 27% drop. Mercedes-Benz was down 16%, and Audi was off 5%.

Not a single automotive brand saw a sales increase in September.