U.S. auto sales in April were on the road to plunging to their lowest levels in nearly 30 years, according to sales reports released today, the day after Chrysler LLC filed for bankruptcy, according to AP. Japan's Toyota Motor Corp posted the largest sales drop at 42 percent among major automakers in the U.S. market, followed by Japan's Nissan Motor Co Ltd at 38 percent. Sales at U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co slid almost 32 percent last month, while sales at General Motors Corp, which like Chrysler has been operating under federal supervision, fell 34 percent. Honda Motor Co Ltd's sales were off 25 percent. At Chrysler, which shut down production on Friday as it began the first day of bankruptcy hearings, April sales results were due to be released later in the day. "Wow, what a month in the last couple of days in the automobile business," Ken Czubay, Ford vice president of sales and marketing, said on a conference call. "Clearly, we continue to operate in a very challenging economic environment." Ford officials said the U.S. economy appears to be reaching a bottom, citing rising consumer confidence ID:nN01402214. The automaker expects U.S. auto industry sales to recover in the second half of the year. Detroit and Japan's automakers are expected to post sharp U.S. sales declines of at least 30 percent in April compared with a year ago as the industry deals with the recession. The weak demand led Chrysler, owned by Cerberus Capital Group, to file for bankruptcy on Thursday and announce an alliance with Italy's Fiat SpA. ID:nLU940906 GM, surviving on $15.4 billion of government loans it received at the start of the year, faces similar pressures as it races to win sweeping cost cuts from bondholders and its major union by a U.S. government-imposed June 1 deadline. ID:nN30519877 U.S. auto sales typically account for as much as one-fifth of all retail sales in the country and represent one of the first indicators of consumer demand every month. Both GM and Chrysler have announced plant shutdowns to slash bloated vehicle inventories. ID:nN01307551 Ford sales fell to 134,401 vehicles in April including all of its brands, from 196,385 vehicles a year earlier. For just the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands, sales fell 31.4 percent.
