Auto sales crater in March and worse to come

U.S. auto sales fell by double-digit percentages in March. And it wasn’t just the former Big Three. Even Toyota was off 10 percent. And we’re probably not done yet:

“I’d like to be able to tell you that the worst is behind us, but I really can't give you that assurance,” Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co.’s sales and marketing chief, said in a conference call with reporters and analysts. Farley said Ford is concerned the shrinking availability of consumer credit will continue to hurt sales and that the second quarter could be more difficult than the first.

It certainly will as far as profits are concerned.

All the automakers reporting their sales numbers said SUV/truck sales were off more than car sales, with gas prices the obvious culprit. As SUVs and pickups make up a bigger percentage of sales, and definitely of profits, for the Formerly Big Three than for Toyota or Honda, this news is indeed not encouraging.

With Chrysler taken private by Cerberus, we have no idea what it did, but given that, in the car division, two of its biggest sellers are the gas-guzzling 300 and Magnum, it’s probably hurting at least as bad as GM and Ford. Cerberus may have thought it was smart a year ago, but Daimler-Benz is probably wiping its brow in relief right now.

Speaking of Chrysler, it’s the first of the Big Three to elminate free life insurance for retirees.