Passenger Car Back Amid Bleak Auto Sales

In 2008, he said, GM faced unique challenges, including an American Axle strike, supply disruptions, negative media coverage during congressional hearings in December and GMAC's inability to finance auto purchases for much of the third quarter. Nevertheless, he said, GM sold 760,000 more cars in the U.S. than Toyota did.

For Chrysler, 2008 sales dropped about 30%, while December sales fell 53%, "which is a pretty nasty number," said Steve Landry, executive vice president for sales. He said the steep drop reflects the company's successful effort to cut unprofitable fleet sales by 197,000 units annually, with a 63% drop in December.

Meanwhile, Toyota said its U.S. sales fell by 36.7% in December and by 15.7% for the full year.

As for market share, GM said its full-year market share was about 22%. Toyota's U.S. market share is about 15.7%. Ford said its market share rose in December 0.7 points to 14.6%, marking the first time since 1997 that it has boosted market share three months in a row. Chrysler's market share is about 11%.

In terms of trends, "the most significant was that the pendulum swung back to passenger cars in 2008," Pippas said. In 2008, passenger cars accounted for 51% of industry sales, the first time since 2000 that car sales exceed truck sales. Ford expects this trend, a return to a decades-old pattern, to continue as a result of generally higher gasoline prices.

All three automakers cited inventory reductions during the year. GM's inventory declined about 4% to 872,000 vehicles. Ford said its inventory declined about 17% to 440,000 vehicles, and Chrysler said its inventory fell 9% to 397,569 units.