December sales drop for Big Three, Mercedes-Benz and Tata

December 2008 seemed to be a very, very bad month for automakers as companies suffered a big drop in sales. Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Tata Motors have suffered tremendously.

Below we have an indepth look at each company, and how they were effected.

General Motors:

GM’s sales dropped by 31% when compared to last year. GM’s car sales were off by 25 percent as they only sold 87,506 units. Their truck sales were down 35 percent as they only sold 134,477 units.

Although General Motors faced a drop, they are still seem happy as their December deliveries are up by 30 percent when compared with October and November.

“Given the ongoing challenges and the difficult market environment, we were very encouraged to see a volume rebound for GM in December compared with both October and November,” said Mark LaNeve, vice president, GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing.

“We are building more vehicles than ever that provide great value and Americans enjoy owning. That is why, for the year, we are seeing our market share holding steady at just above 22 percent. That’s 5 percentage points more and 760,000 vehicles more than our nearest competitor,” added LaNeve.

For the year, GM sold 2,980,688 vehicles in the U.S. -down 23 percent compared with 2007, which allowed the company to maintain a market share just above 22 percent.

Ford Motor Company:

Ford’s December months sales include the Ford, Mercury, Lincoln and Volvo brands, which totaled 139,067, which is down 32.4 percent when compared to the year before that.

Although there was a drop, Ford estimates that the market share of the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands were 14.6 percent in December, which is 0.7 percent up when compared to a year ago.

Sales for the full year totaled 1,988,376, which is 20.7 percent down from the 2,507,366 units sold the previous year.

Chrysler LLC:

Chrysler seems to have done the worst when compared to Ford and General Motors. Chrysler LLC have reported a sales total of 89,813 units, which is 53 percent less than December 2007.

During the 2008 year Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge U.S. sales decreased by 30 percent, from 2,076,650 units in 2007 to 1,453,122 units in 2008.

Mercedes-Benz:

December seemed to also be a poor month for Mercedes-Benz as they reported that they only sold 18,507 units in the U.S., which is a 32.1 percent drop from December 2007.

The total sales for 2008 totaled 225,128, which is a 11.2 percent drop when compared to 2007.

However, sales of the C-Class model were up 13.8 percent for the year, with the M-Class SUV line-up also increasing by 1.3 percent. Mercedes-Benz’s Smart car unit which made its debut in the U.S. during 2008, recorded 2,341 sales in December. The German automakers year-to-date sales totaled up to 24,662 units.

Tata Motors:

Tata Motors the owner of Jaguar and Land Rover reported a huge drop in sales for the December month. Tata sales fell 47 percent. Passenger Tata models fell a total of 31 percent while the commercial vehicles dropped by 41 percent.

“A deepening recessionary trend in the economy, coupled with continuing credit squeeze and high interest rates, has further depressed customer sentiments. As a result, automobile purchases are being severely impacted,” the company said in a statement.