US major auto makers all experienced a sales decline of at least 30 percent in the country in December, capping its worst year since 1992, reports from Detroit revealed on January 5.

The auto companies' sales are reeling from tough economic times, spurred by the Wall Street meltdown, the subsequent tightening of the credit market and consumers moving from larger vehicles to more fuel-efficient, smaller ones.

Auto mechanic Paul Cook works on a customer's Ford Escape SUV in the service department of a Ford car dealership in Warren, Michigan Dec. 18, 2008. [Xinhua/Reuters]

Compared with November, General Motors Corp. reported December sales dropped 31 percent; Ford Motor Co. reported a drop of 32 percent; Chrysler LLC reported sales plummeted 53 percent.

Honda Motor Co, Nissan North America and Toyota Motor Co reported 34 percent, 30 percent and 37 percent drop in sales respectively.

The market on the whole shrunk during 2008, allowing Ford to gain market share for the last three months, which the company has not achieved for more than a decade.

Honda Motor Co., while having a bad December, weathered the market better than other carmakers. The company reported sales in 2008 only fell 8.2 percent compared with 2007.

Toyota reported its 2008 sales fell 16 percent. The Japanese automaker sold more than 240,000 hybrids in the United States during the year.

Consulting firm IHS Global Insight predicts that US auto sales will drop to 10.3 million this year as the economy continues to deteriorate.

(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2009)