by Calculated Risk on 10/02/2008 11:37:00 AM

Professor Hamilton at Econbrowser always does a great job summarizing auto sales, see: Auto sales deteriorate further

All the graphs show a sharp decline in September - as Jim Hamilton writes:

"U.S. auto sales have been dismal for most of this year. And they just took a turn for the worse."

Perhaps the most telling is this graph on import car sales. Import car sales have been the one bright spot all year because importers offered more fuel efficient models. But look at September 2008:


From Econbrowser: Data source: Wardsauto.com

Hamilton concludes:

"All of which is consistent with the view that the U.S. economy has been in recession and took a sharp turn for the worse last month."