AutoNation CEO Sees Depressed Sales Through 2011

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. auto sales should recover a bit next year but will remain at depression levels through 2010 until housing prices and job cuts stabilize, the CEO of the nation's largest auto dealer chain said Monday.

AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson said in an interview that tight credit is holding down sales this year, but they will hit bottom in 2009 and start to increase next year, rising to around 11 million cars and trucks. Sales this year are running at an annual rate of around 10 million vehicles.

"We still have more demand than credit," Jackson said after speaking to the Original Equipment Suppliers Association meeting in Detroit. "We see the credit environment ever slowly, gradually improving."

Auto sales, he said, won't return to normal levels until job losses and housing prices begin to stabilize. He predicted improvement in 2011 and 2012, and a return to more normal sales after that.

Earlier this decade U.S. auto sales exceeded 16 million vehicles a year, although industry analysts caution that those numbers were artificial because automakers were producing more vehicles than the market would buy.