I honestly expected the auto sales figures for May 2009 to be a bit better than they were in April 2009, unfortunately the numbers are a bit worse. Surprisingly, Chrysler and GM’s losses were a bit better than April 2009 but Honda saw a huge jump in their decline percentage.

Domestic Automakers

Chrysler is preparing to emerge from bankruptcy and consumer confidence in the products seems to remain stable. Perhaps it is the deep discounts available on new Chrysler models from the bevy of dealerships across the U.S. that will be forced to closing in the coming months. Overall, sales were down 46.9% when compared to May 2008. This is better than the 48.1% year over year decline seen in April 2009.

General Motors, who just filed for bankruptcy yesterday, posted a 29% drop when compared to May 2008. The company sold more than 190,000 units in May 2009. In March 2009, GM posted a decline of 44.7% and in April 2009 they improved to 33.2%. It will be interesting to see how the bankruptcy filing affects the numbers for June 2009.

Ford Motors, which has remained relatively stable during the entire auto industry shakeup, posted a 25.8% sales drop in May 2009. This is an improvement over the company’s April 2009 sales.

Imports

Honda was the “big winner” last month posting a 25.3% decline when compared to April 2009. Despite the all-new Honda Insight and the massive media campaign surrounding it, American Honda sales were down 41.5% in May 2009. So Honda went from the best performing of the big three Japanese imports in April 2009 to the worst performing in May 2009.

Toyota’s sales were down 40.7%, which is a slight improvement over the 41.9% the automaker saw in April 2009. Nissan also showed an improvement and only experienced a 33.1% decline in sales for May 2009.

Check back tomorrow for May 2009 hybrid auto sales figures.

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