It’s a fitting way to end a year that saw
year-over-year declines for the Big Two automakers nearly every month except during the summer when employee pricing
was the sales tactic du jour. Rueters is reporting
that analysts predict GM to post a sales decline of eight percent in December, while Ford’s sales may drop up to
14.5 percent and DaimlerChrysler’s two to six percent.
The article cites analysts’ explanation
of winter incentives being unable to sway buyers who had gotten used to deeper discounts offered by employee
pricing.
The imports, however, will again post a collective gain for 2005 and gobble up another couple
points of market share to increase their piece of the pie to 40.5 percent, up from 38.8 percent in 2004. Toyota in
particular will likely report another gain for December, probably in the neighborhood of two to seven percent, while
other Japanese automakers should remain steady or report slightly lower numbers for the month.