DETROIT - General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler unit reported lower November sales yesterday as discounting drew fewer buyers than in November 2001, when sales hit a record.
Sales at General Motors, the largest automaker, declined 18 percent, and sales dropped 20 percent at Ford and 12 percent at Chrysler.
Ford shares declined 13 percent, the biggest decline in more than a year, after the second-biggest automaker said it will scale back production. Shares of General Motors and DaimlerChrysler also fell.
U.S. auto sales have dropped for two months after a yearlong boost from discounts and no-cost financing aimed at drumming up business after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"We're seeing there's a limited bang to zero-percent" financing, said Jim Glickenhaus, general partner at Glickenhaus & Co., which manages a $1 billion portfolio that includes General Motors bonds.
"Eventually you get to where everybody who wants to buy a car already has," Glickenhaus said.
The incentives led to an annualized sales rate of 17.8 million vehicles in November 2001, a record for the month. October 2001's sales were an annualized 21.3 million vehicles, the most ever for a single month.
General Motors said it sold 309,263 vehicles last month, including imports and heavy trucks. Ford sold a total of 261,705 and Chrysler 158,839.
Ford's production cuts will lead analysts to lower their earnings estimates, said Deutsche Bank Securities analyst Rod Lache. Ford, which reiterated yesterday an earnings forecast of 40 cents a share for 2002, had been projected at 47 cents by analysts.
"People thought Ford would cut production [earlier] in the fourth quarter," Lache said. "When it didn't, they thought the fourth quarter would be better."
Ford's shares dropped $1.49, or 13 percent, to close yesterday at $9.96 on the New York Stock Exchange, after earlier touching $9.91.
"Very few of us were expecting a production cut, because nobody was expecting a 20 percent sales decline," said Dan Poole, vice president of equity research at National City Corp., which owned 606,500 Ford shares at the end of June. Ford's production cut makes "the news a little worse," Poole said.
Chrysler's car sales were down more than 9 percent and light truck sales were off 12.6 percent. DaimlerChrysler's luxury automaker, Mercedes Benz, reported that sales were up 3.4 percent in the month compared with November 2001 as car sales rose 11.1 percent, but its truck sales fell nearly 24 percent.
General Motors shares fell $2.05 to $37.90, and DaimlerChrysler's U.S.-traded stock dropped $1.82 to $33.75.