GM thinks the weak dollar might rescue its sales slide

November saw car sales in the US drop 1% from the year before to 1.2 million, with GM down 13% and Ford down 4.3%.

In contrast, Toyota added 8.8%, while Nissan sales shot up by a third. Chrysler also gained ground.

Both Ford and GM are now intending to reduce production in the first quarter of 2005 by more than 7%.

Both remain comfortably at the top of the sales tables, although Chrysler - the US unit of carmaker DaimlerChrysler - and Toyota have been jockeying for third position.

US LIGHT VEHICLE MARKET SHARE GM: 24.8% Ford: 18.2% Chrysler: 13.7% Toyota: 12.9% Honda: 8% Nissan: 6.7%

But the two have routinely seen sales fall in recent months, with their Asian competitors coming up fast behind them.

The overall decline in new car sales, analysts said, may be a sign of consumers holding off till December, in the expectation that already generous incentives and discounts will be boosted still further.

GM cut incentives between October and November this year, which could help explain the sharpness of its slide.

Currency help

But the long-term problem for two of the Big Three remains.

Car bosses are now hoping that the seemingly inexorable fall of the dollar will come to the rescue, as GM's chief executive explained to the Wall Street Journal.

With about 40% of Toyota cars sold in the US being imported from Japan, a stronger yen would help "level the playing field", Rick Wagoner told the newspaper.

A rate of about 90 yen to the dollar would be about right, he said.