New-Car Sales Expected to Fall By 2 Million Units

J.D. Power is predicting that new-car sales will fall by 2 million units in 2008, down to 13.6 million units, and stay in that range for 2009, at an estimated 13.2 million units. That’s a 16% drop, and the company says another 200,000 could be lost if things get worse in the fourth quarter of 2008.

We’re knocking on any piece of wood we can find in the Cars.com offices that the economy can’t possibly get worse in the fourth quarter. With a strong lineup of 2009 and 2010 models on the horizon that leans more to fuel-efficient vehicles than slow-selling SUVs, we could see higher sales than projected because the average car price will most likely be lower.

The U.S. isn’t the only nation to see sales fall, as the Chinese, Indian and European markets all got lower projections as well.