Passenger Car Back Amid Bleak Auto Sales

Meanwhile, Chrysler President Jim Press said: "Our hope is there may be a little relief as we get to the second half of next year, (but) we're not counting on that."

For the full year, industry vehicle sales were around 13.5 million, Pippas estimated. The year-over-year decline was 16% to 18%, as sales reached their lowest level since hitting 13.1 million in 1992. By contrast, from 1999 through 2007, annual sales fluctuated between 16.1 million and 17.4 million.

For the fourth quarter, industry sales were 920,000, down 35% from a year earlier. That translates to a full-year sales rate of about 10.6 million, auto executives said. Fourth quarter sales of 2.5 million cars were the lowest since 1981, "and there are 70 million more licensed drivers on the road," Pippas said.

For Ford, full-year 2008 sales declined by 20%, while December sales fell 32%. Ford said its market share increased in December to 14.6%, up 0.7 points, marking its third consecutive month of increased market share. The gains were led by the F-series truck, the company said.

For GM, full year sales declined 22.9%, while December sales fell 31.4%. GM saw improvement in December, as its sales rose 43% over November's total. The gain was led by the Chevrolet Malibu, with a 39% sales increase for 2009, making it the highest percentage gainer in the top 20 vehicles sold in the U.S.

DiGiovanni said the industry's December sales were better than expected, since the annualized rate of 10.5 million to 10.6 million exceeded expectations. "A lot of analysts had the industry coming in below 10 million on a light vehicle basis," he said.