Hug your sad Salesperson: Sales off sharply for January

Reuters is reporting some bad news. Auto sales are near a 27-year low for the month of January. The numbers (make sure small children or people sensitive to strong images of corporate failure are not looking):

Ford: 40% drop in January domestic sales, capping 10 months of declines of more than 10%

Toyota: 34% drop for US sales

Nissan: 30% for US sales

Shockingly, on the news that rental car agencies were sharply cutting back on purchases, Chrysler expected sales to be off more than 35%. Why did I say “shockingly” (in a sarcastic manner)? Well, that’s to be expected when the only people who buy your cars are rental agencies. I mentioned a while back that the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring twins are pretty much the archetype of a car so foul that only rental car agencies will buy them. The economy is so bad the agencies are balking.

If any Chrysler execs are reading this (which, trust me, they aren’t for several reasons, one of which is that they are allergic to good advice), you might want to consider making cars that don’t look like rejected props from Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs.