There’s nothing for anyone to like in Ford’s just-released February sales numbers (PDF), which show sales of all brands down nearly 50 percent. SUVs led declines by category, dropping a staggering 71 percent compared to February ’08. Drops were relatively even by brand, with all of Ford’s brands declining by between 40 and 55 percent. Fusion and Mustang sales dropped by 49.2 and 61.4 percent respectively, while Edge and Taurus X dragged CUV sales down with 55.2 and 46.1 percent decreases. Both of these categories fared much better than Ford’s SUVs which were down over 70 percent. Lincoln sales dropped 41.2 percent with MKZ, Navigator and Mark LT all falling over 65 percent. Mercury’s Sable showed a 35 percent sales increase, holding that brand’s losses to under 50 percent. Volvo lost over 55 percent of its sales versus last February, with S60 (down 79.2 percent) and V70 (down 66.8 percent) leading the way. Volvo’s new XC60 sold only 235 units. Volvo’s best-selling car is the S80, which sold a grand total of 671 units last month.

Where’s the news? VW’s sales were down from 16,556 to 13,660 from February ’08 to February ’09, a decline of 17.5%. Models like the Rabbit (Golf with a stupid engine) and Passat were down significantly, while VW’s supremely important Jetta model fell from 6823 last February to 5199 this past month. This was offset a bit by an additional 784 units of the Jetta wagon, which wasn’t on sale last February. Some red meat if you’re into that sort of thing: the R32 (which I’ve never been wild about) dropped from 449 cars last February to a paltry 85 this February, a decline of 81%. VW has had a number of new models introduced in the past 12 months, like the Tiguan, Routan, CC, and the aforementioned Jetta wagon which have helped to offset the decline in other areas. Or just flat out stole sales from their siblings. Stay tuned for an upcoming editorial about VW’s models and marketing in the US, which I believe has been infected by the dangerous Genmotovirus.

Sorry about the pun (referring to the yearly sales rate), but Automotive News [sub] nailed the headline, and I couldn’t just repeat it without a little TTACitude. Sometimes, though, the simple truth is all there is. The fact that America’s largest publicly traded dealership group has cut new vehicle orders by 60 percent is… stunning. It means that that the U.S. new car market is dead in the water. Federal bailout or no, someone’s going to take a dirt nap. Not that Mike Jackson thinks so. The AutoNation CEO reckons U.S. new car sales have stabilized at a rate of 10 million per year, and expects that number to climb over 11 million by the end of the year. What’s more, the formerly pessimistic Jackson has looked at Chrysler and GM’s new viability plans and put Smash Mouth’s “I’m a Believer” on his iPod. “I felt the outline of the direction they gave back in November was too optimistic on the sales side and not deep enough on the cuts side. These plans are much more realistic and it’s the right approach.” So another one bites the rust. Or something like that.

Why wouldn’t the classic car market crash? Not only are the bonus boys getting bounced, but swanning around in multi-million dollar cars is just not done in these turbulent times. And even if it is, the temper of the times still calls for restraint re: purchasing four-wheeled frippery without which even the wealthiest amongst us can survive. The weird thing here is how long it’s taking the MSM and even the specialist press to acknowledge and declare the collapse of the collector-car market. It’s almost as if they’re in cahoots with the people promoting and selling the vehicles, along the lines of those real estate magazines whose articles are as thin as the “there’s never been a better time to buy” logic contained within. Reality checking is a tough job, but someone’s got to do it . . .

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The rest of the automotive industry might be watching in horror As the World Downturns, but Ferrari had a bit of a giggle all the way to the bank last year. The FIAT division ended 2008 some $437.7m ahead, on sales of 6587 vehicles (up two percent). While sales in Ferrari’s biggest market (that’s US) remained flat, they swelled in Eastern European (+23 percent), China (+20 percent), the Middle East and South Africa (+12 percent). With the feds capping salaries, and austerity chic sweeping Spago’s (“I’ll just have the lettuce leaf”), it’s entirely possible that that Ferrari’s ’08 sales surge represents a dead cat bounce. And there’s a seguire il denaro story behind the story . . .

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Remember the “worst case sales scenario” in GM’s viability plan? It predicted 11.5m annual sales in the US. Unless a turnaround arrives sometime this year, there’s no chance that sales will hit that number. According to Automotive News [sub], annual sales expectations for 2009 have dropped to 9.8m units. But there’s still a surprising amount of unfounded optimism among Detroit’s spinners and marketing mavens. Specifically, Ford’s execs say that retail sales have “stabilized” over the past four months. Too bad, then, that they’ve stabilized at an abysmal rate of 8.5m units per year. “We’re heartened to see it stabilize — although stabilizing at an awful level,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president of U.S. sales and marketing. Heartened? Seriously? But enough of the maudlin posturing. There are scapegoats to blame!

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“442,241 vehicles were built last month, compared with 1,170,816 in January 2008. The previous smallest month took place during a UAW strike at Delphi Automotive Systems Corp. in July 1998. That month, North American automakers produced 667,074 vehicles. Total U.S. vehicle output plunged 65.6 percent; Canada fell 58.0 percent; and Mexico shriveled by 49.8 percent.” What else do you need to know?

A reader writes:

Several weeks ago, I took my 18-year-old daughter to Pennsylvania to find her a used car (I don’t believe in buying a new car for a kid). We found a Honda dealership that had a nice, clean 1998 Civic for about $4000. My daughter had $3000 saved up from working at the mall. We gave the salesman the cash and I asked if I could get a loan for the balance. “No loans”, he replied. “We had a guy in here this morning that had an 800 credit score that had to walk away from the car because he couldn’t get approved.” I then agreed to give the salesman a personal check from my account and we were able to buy the car (which, by the way, has been a real gem). The Honda dealership is right across the road from a Cadillac store. “I sold more Hondas myself in December than all the salesman over at Cadillac combined,” he told me. I think this experience is a good indicator of what’s happening in car sales in the USA right now. It’s a bloodbath.

Or so goes the logic of Brent Snavely and friends over at the Detroit Free Press. Sales down 37.1 percent? The lowest seasonally adjusted annual selling rate (SAAR) since 1982? No way is it going to get worse before it gets better! “This is not real. This is artificially low,” says Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com, who goes on to warn that “the industry might not recover without some sort of external stimulus.” Not here, not now! And yet in the midst of all this turmoil, a strained and unconvincing optimism abounds. Well, at the Freep anyway . . .

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Not buyers of Dodge Vipers per se. Some 127 of them found their way to a Dodge dealer in January, a 74 percent gain from last year’s total. Of course, that may have a little something to do with the fact that A) Dodge dealers are dealing as if their life depends on it (which it does) and B) the chances of buying a new Viper are decreasing by the minute. Especially since Chrysler revealed that it wants to sell the model as a brand to . . . someone. Oh how we laughed! Well, not Autoblog obviously, despite having reported that American tuner Saleen was a suitor (after having reported that Saleen’s busy going belly-up). I mention this not because I’ve been dying to put the boot in to Autoblog ever since my reader-inspired vow of fraternity, but because it raises the obvious question. Is Chrysler lying when it told the MSM that it has three companies interested in buying its Viper tooling and trademarks? (Setting aside the question of whether or not Cerberus has already mortgaged these “assets.”) Here’s AB’s take:

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The Financial Times reports that the glut of unsold new cars has spilled onto previously underutilized ships. Carmakers have apparently run out of space on dealer lots, ports of entry, rail cars, and airport runways. Just last spring, there wasn’t enough capacity aboard the world’s fleet of 640 car carriers to go around, a situation upended by the global downturn in car sales starting around September. Coincidentally, there are 70 more (and larger) car carriers due to be delivered this year. Shipping companies are relieved to get the storage business, and carmakers get someplace to hide their cars. The FT.com article was able to confirm that up to 2500 Toyotas are chartered for an extended cruise to nowhere aboard the Morning Glory in Malmö, Sweden. (Pictures, anyone?) As long as the boats don’t flip over, the cars will be just fine. [ED: Until the marine environment takes its toll.] And if not: sad, sad pictures of shredded Mazdas aboard the Cougar Ace here.

People who did buy cars last month were clearly shopping for value, and Hyundai/Kia rode its rep to sales increases in a month of market contraction. Hyundai was the biggest winner in the US market last month, with overall sales rising 14 percent, to a sales total of 24,512 units. Hyundai’s press release highlights strengths in the firm’s eastern sales district (reportedly up 20 percent over January 2008), and positive reactions to its Assurance program. On the product front, Sonata sales lead the way, up 85 percent in a month when Accord/Camry/Malibu competitors dropped 30 percent or more. And with BMW selling only 23 7-series in January, Hyundai’s Genesis was a recession-level hit with 1,056 sales. Santa Fe was up 35 percent, and at 5,024 units sold it was Hyundai’s second best-selling nameplate. Kia sales were up 3.5 percent, with Rio (+60 percent), Optima (+75 percent) and Rondo (+90 percent) making up for decreases elsewhere.