As European Car Sales Slide, the Industry Gets Desperate

[ALS]

The car sector cannot solve its Europe problem, and that will swamp sales and earnings for a long time to come.

Douglas A. Mcintyre - 247WALLST - May 16, 2012

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) announced that April sales of cars and light trucks in the region were “6.9% less than in the same month of 2011.” That means only 1,017,912 new passenger cars were registered in the European Union during the month.

As might be expected, based on the great disparity of GDP growth or contraction, sales in Germany rose 2.9%, while sales in Spain and Greece fell 21.7% and 18.0%, respectively. Regardless of how the numbers break out by nation, the market in the area is in such deep trouble that regional manufacturing results have been crushed and will continue to be. EU results for multinational car companies are and will be poor enough to offset most success in the United States or China. The car sector cannot solve its Europe problem, and that will swamp sales and earnings for a long time to come. All that remains to figure is what each manufacturer will do to try to offset the problem.... [Read More]

[herm]

"while sales in Spain and Greece fell 21.7% and 18.0%, respectively"

Its going to get much worse before it gets better..

[ALS]

It is a total nightmare scenario going on in the E.U. People over here in the states have no clue how bad their economies are over there. Example, Greece is seeing 1,000 businesses closing down each week and in France and Italy it is hundreds a week.

[jpleong]

That's what you get when you implement austerity measures in the middle of an economic downturn. Money doesn't flow in any direction... and then there's the mess that is the Euro and that removes individual countries' ability to keep their industries viable/competitive which means even less money available to consumers.

Dang vicious circle.

JP