It is that time again - time to look back at the previous month and see how much auto sales have dropped when compared to this time last year. Auto manufacturers from around the world have posted their United States sales figures and the team at Automotive News has compiled all of these figures into a neat and tidy chart.

Let’s start with the good news. Wait, there is no good news. Total sales figures for November 2008 represented a 36.9% decrease when compared with November 2007. Isuzu saw the biggest drop in sales reporting a 73.8% change; in November 2007, there were 496 Isuzu models sold nationwide. Isuzu dealerships only sold 130 vehicles in November 2008. Ouch.

Now it is time to look at how the Detroit 3 fared. In October 2008, General Motors posted a 45.1% decrease when compared to the same month in 2007. That number is a bit smaller this month as the company is only reporting a 41.3% decline in sales in the month of November.

Ford Motor Company posted a 32.6% decrease in domestic sales in November 2008, which is .5% higher than the decrease the company saw in October 2008. Chrysler, who has been embroiled in some heated discussions lately, saw a whopping 47.1% decline in November 2008 sales. This is up sharply from the 34.9% decrease that the company saw in October 2008.

The auto crisis is not specific to American manufacturers; Nissan recently cited the economic downturn as the reason it is pulling out of the Detroit International Auto Show next year. Nissan saw a 42.2% drop in sales in November 2008 with Nissan vehicles showing a 44.4% decrease and Infiniti posting a 28% drop. The two largest Japanese-based auto manufacturers, Toyota and Honda, also posted dismal figures.

American Honda saw a 31.6% decrease in sales in November 2008. Will the low-priced Honda Insight Hybrid be the ace up Honda’s sleeves? Unfortunately, we will not know until the car hits the dealerships in the spring of 2009.

Toyota also posted a significant loss with a decline of 33.9% seen. What is unusual is that one Toyota model posted a huge increase in sales and it was not the Prius. Instead, it was the Toyota Sequoia with its paltry 14/17 (city/highway) fuel efficiency rating. That’s right, gas falls to under $2 gallon in most places across the United States and people seem to have amnesia. Four dollar a gallon gas was not that long ago but the way the Sequoia sold in November (a 52% increase over October) you would think it happened decades ago.

Earl Stewart, owner of a Toyota dealership in Florida “sold 57 Priuses in November, down from 67 in October. He is discounting his Priuses by $1,200 on the base model and $2,000 on the most-expensive versions.” (Source: Automotive News)

Wow.

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