Even with the the last minute surge in December of buyers taking advantage of numerous incentive programs, it was still not enough to prevent another record year of sales declines. The year 2009 saw an industry wide decline of 21.2% from the 2008 year and the worst total sales since 1982.

Everybody thought that 2008 was the bottom for auto sales, in 2008 record declines were met with hopes and renewed vigor that 2009 would see a stabilization and return to growth. Unfortunately those hopes were dashed today as the final tally of auto sales figures were added up and 2009 was even worse than 2008.

For General Motors, automobile sales in 2009 were 30% lower than in 2008. Chrysler sales were down 36% compared to the prior year which was also the worst sales performance for Chrysler since 1962.

At Ford it was a little bit better, but year over year sales figures still put the auto giant at lower sales than in 2008 with a drop of 15% from last year.

Had it not been for the Government ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program, sales for 2009 would have been significantly worse. Now that the program has ended, the real tell of how well the auto makers are able to do will come through. General Motors is predicting that 2010 will bring an industry sales figure of 11 to 12 million vehicles. To that I say “good luck’ at meeting those figures, that is unless another Government handout is coming.

In 2009 the industry wide sales figures came in at 10.4 million units, down 21.2% from sales in 2008.

Who did do well in 2009? Hyundai and Subaru reported 8% and 10% gains respectively as their vehicles were among the most popular during the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program.

With the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program now over, reports of delinquencies still rising, and the unemployment situation my estimate for the 2010 sales figures are for a year end tally of 9.5 to 10.5 million units, much lower than forecast by General Motors and other economists.