GM, Ford December Drops May Cap Worst Year in Decade

General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. will probably say December U.S. auto sales fell as consumers reined in spending, ending a year with the lowest demand for cars and trucks in a decade.
Deliveries dropped about 5.6 percent at GM, 7.8 percent at Ford and 7.9 percent at Chrysler LLC, based on the average estimates of six analysts in a Bloomberg survey before tomorrow's reports. Smaller declines at Japanese rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp., which bumped Ford from the No. 2 spot at midyear, may help them gain market share over Detroit's money-losing trio.

Americans bought about 16.1 million cars and trucks for the year, the least since 1998, with year-end gasoline prices exceeding $3 a gallon for the first time and consumer confidence at a two-year low. Housing starts, one barometer for sales of profitable pickup trucks, are in the deepest slump in 16 years.

“The housing market and credit crunch are really affecting consumers,'' said Efraim Levy, an equity analyst with Standard & Poor's in New York and one of the forecasters predicting 2007 sales of 16.1 million. “It's definitely been a weak year.''

All three of Japan's biggest automakers will probably report declines for December while collectively gaining market share, said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California. He predicts declines of 2.9 percent for Toyota, 0.8 percent at Nissan Motor Co. and 1.4 percent for Honda Motor Co. Bloomberg News