General Motors said Monday its October sales tumbled 45 percent from a year ago, saying the industry was on track for its worst month in 25 years. GM delivered 170,585 new cars and trucks in the month, a stunning decline attributed to “uncertainty over the deepening credit crisis” and weak consumer confidence.

Wow. GM is in for some tough tough times. Honda’s hanging in there. Produce some reliable fuel-effecient vehicles and things may change.

With all the problems in the auto industry, you may wonder if the car brand you’re thinking about buying today will be around tomorrow. The bottom line is this: Stick with the strongest brand. It’s not what could go wrong with your car while you own it. It’s what happens when you want to unload it.

There’s been a lot of speculation lately that Chrysler and General Motors may be in talks to join forces. Great!!! If the two companies do become a single automaker, analysts expect a number of brands to be phased out.

The real impact for owners of Oldsmobile and Plymouth vehicles was that their cars’ resale values plummeted after the brands died. What happened with Oldsmobile was that the used car values of Oldsmobile dropped a lot quicker than for brands that were still in business. A year after each brand went out of existence, a two-year old Oldsmobile or Plymouth suddenly had the value of a five-year-old car.

It can be hard to figure out what a healthy brand is, though. Current resale values give a clue. A brand in danger of extinction will usually have a small model range and will hold its value poorly. For news on what brands may be winding down, just look on the Web. Look for news stories about the brand you’re considering buying. If you find stories about future models, that’s good. They’re still in the game.

To make up for revenue loss, GM’s brlight idea is to increase prices of their smaller cars.

When General Motors Corp.’s new global small car hits the U.S. market in mid-2010, the company is expecting it to fetch a better price than Honda and Toyota get for their small cars. Chevrolet General Manager Ed Peper said GM needs to get more money per vehicle than its prime Japanese competitors, Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.

GM is banking on a big step up in price as it tries to make up for revenue lost when the U.S. market shifted rapidly from more profitable trucks and sport utility vehicles to more efficient smaller models.

Sigh… Just build quality cars! Goodluck against your Japanese competitors.

What The McCains Roll In

John and Cindy McCain’s Cars:

Cadillac CTS made by General Motors (US)
Volkswagen convertible (Germany)
Honda sedan (Japan)
Half-ton Ford pickup truck (US)
Willys Jeep (US)
Jeep Wrangler (US)
Lincoln (US)
GMC SUV (US)
Three NEV Gem electric vehicles - bubble-shaped cars popular in retirement communities (US)
Lexus - registered to Cindy McCain’s family’s beer business with MS BUD number plate (Japan)
Toyota Prius bought for daughter Meghan (Japan)

Barack and Michelle Obama’s Car: Ford Escape Hybrid

Take a look at the slideshow of the 50 Worst Cars dating back to 1899. It’s actually a pretty interesting look at the trial and errors from hundreds of years ago. Some of the “vehicles”  would probably be a hit today. I would pay to drive this George Jetson one in a heartbeat!

American-sized cars seem to be preferred in China

Buying an automobile is no longer the domain of the wealthy and Communist Party officials. As China’s middle class broadens, a car culture is burgeoning. But in some key ways, the car-buying experience is decidedly different than in the United States. Total sales of all vehicles are rising 20% per year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. General Motors Corp. sold 1.03 million cars in China in 2007.

In Beijing, there is no expansive auto lot, nor are there repair or collision facilities. And there are few used cars at this location. Test drives are not encouraged because you’ll spend more time sitting in Beijing’s traffic than opening up the engine. Inventory and test drives are offered at a roomy second location in a Beijing suburb.

The Chinese are becoming savvy car shoppers, thanks to the Internet and word-of-mouth referrals from a rapidly expanding customer base. They’re also becoming more sophisticated in their tastes, seeking something light years beyond the Chinese econo-boxes from the 1980s and ’90s.

Then again, there are certain makes of American cars you can not find in the U.S. Supposedly, the quality of American cars in China is superior.  Here’s a few. The Cadillac pictured above is unique to the Chinese market.

General Motors makes more money selling cars overseas than in the United States.

Six decades after the communist revolution, China has become the hottest capitalist engine on earth. And ironically, some of the most revered symbols of success in today’s China are Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet.

General Motors may be struggling at home, but it is thriving in China. In 2007, GM sold nearly twice as many Buicks in China as it did in the United States.

So why buy American instead of a car made by a Chinese manufacturer? “American producers have a longer history of producing cars and they have better techniques,” said Zhoucheng, a 36-year-old businessman from Shanghai province. I beg to differ with their cars, buddy.

The seesaw of gas and vehicle prices

For the past few weeks, dealerships across the country had begun to feel the heat with their large vehicle inventory. Gas prices had soared to $4.70 in some areas of the United States with oil nearing $150 per barrel. Incentives on SUVs and large trucks had shot through the roof. Today, however, Ford announced a hike in SUV and truck lease pricing to make their most profitable vehicles unattractive to new car lesees.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ford sent a memo to their dealerships saying “due to extreme losses Ford Credit is taking on off-lease vehicles, it will be necessary for Ford Motor Credit Company to adjust residuals mid-quarter on the following vehicle lines.” This is an attempt to salvage whatever revenue they can because of defaults on leases extended to low credit rating individuals, which Ford will also cease to offer with this announcement.

Now is the time to pick up a lease if you’re looking for an SUV or truck. Gas prices have been fluctuating and seem to have settled down, and if the trend continues we may see an overall increase in SUV and truck purchases in the near future. The changes will effect the Ford Sport Trac SUVs, F-150s, Explorer and Super Duty Pickups. Use our fast vehicle search tool on Autobrag.com to find a Ford vehicle before the lease option expires on August 1, 2008.

In May, the thrifty Honda Civic became the best-selling vehicle in America.

The Honda Civic became the best selling vehicle in America - car or truck - and both it and the Honda Accord outsold the once-invincible Ford F-150 pickup trucks.

Among the world’s automakers, Honda has long behaved as if the world is indeed running out of all kinds of resources, including oil. Its relentless focus on thrift and conservation, which seemed like eccentricities 20 or 30 years ago, today make Honda the leader of the environmental pack.

While the Detroit Three plus Toyota were getting hammered on the showroom floor in May, with sales down anywhere from 4.3% for Toyota to 27.5% for General Motors, Honda posed a stunning 15.6% sales increase.

Rocket science this isn’t. They aren’t making any more oil so, over time, you had to figure it was going to get more expensive and more scarce. So why weren’t other manufacturers able to see the road ahead as well as Honda?

 1. They got sidetracked by the easy profits available in big SUVs and pickups. During the 1990s, the last golden age of the American auto industry, the combination of cheap gas and high-profit big vehicles seduced automakers into believing the good times would never end.

2. Honda’s tightly-knit corporate culture and long time horizon made it uniquely able to wait for events to move in its direction, rather than chasing fluctuations in the marketplace.

3. The other automakers became distracted by their own corporate imperatives. Nissan compounded its problems by starting its own passenger car horsepower race. The Detroit Three, at times, seemed to get their jollies by reviving models from 40 years ago — Mustang, Challenger, Camaro — because of the short term jolt they got in the marketplace, rather than formulating any kind of long-term strategy for a resource-constrained world.

Ford feels the squeeze… again

Gas has hit a record high in the past week topping $135 a barrel last Thursday. Americans are making the transition from SUVs to more fuel-efficient sedans and crossovers, a scary scenario for auto manufacturers like Ford. For the first quarter of 2008, sales of the popular Ford Explorer have fallen 25% compared to the first quarter of 2007. With Ford so heavily invested in SUVs, their overall sales are bound to drop tremendously as prices at the pump continue to rise.

Ford announced last week that they would not reach earnings estimates in 2009 and today announced that they would be cutting back 12% of salaried jobs. Motionless inventories are bound to be cleared by some type of dealer incentives in upcoming weeks, so this could be your best opportunity to snag a great deal on an SUV if you need the utility.

If not, there are many fuel-efficient hybrids, sedans and crossovers to fit your budget. Check out some of the latest models from Toyota, Honda, Nissan and others by using our convenient search engine at AutoBrag.com.