 US carmakers are having to rework their business and vehicle models |
US automakers including General Motors and Ford have come under increased pressure from foreign rivals, and have seen weaker demand for trucks and cars. General Motors said sales fell 7.7% in March from a year earlier, and Ford's dipped 12.4%. The US business of DaimlerChrysler saw sales decline 4.6%.
Also in March, Japan's Toyota saw sales rise 7.7%, Nissan had a 3.9% gain, and Honda said it was in for a record year.
US carmakers are having to cut jobs and revamp models to try to win clients.
Sales breakdown
Last month, DaimlerChrysler said it was going to trim 13,000 jobs in the US. Ford and GM had already unveiled plans for thousands of job cuts.
Ford said it will close 16 factories in North America and cut 45,000 jobs. GM has closed 12 plants and cut more than 34,000 jobs.
On Tuesday, US car industry figures showed that the GM's sales were hit by a decline in demand from car rental companies and government agencies.
It also saw a slide in pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs)
Ford was also hit by weaker truck sales, especially of its F-Series pickup trucks.
DaimlerChrysler shareholders are due to meet in Berlin on Wednesday, and analysts said that a topic of hot interest will be the possible sale of company's US business Chrysler Group.
GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler held 51.6% of the total US vehicle market in the first three months of 2007, according to figures from Autodata.
GM's market share dipped to 22.9% from 23.9%. Ford's fell to 15.4% from 17.6%, while DaimlerChrysler's slid to 13.8% from 14.3%. During the same period, Toyota managed to boost its market share to 15.6% from 11.2%.
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
