NEW YORK — As car buyers lose confidence, so do auto analysts.
Consumer confidence is at an all-time low. People are unable or unwilling to take on any additional payments. This has prompted auto analysts to slash their forecasts for sales of new cars and trucks this year, citing increasing uncertainty about whether the industry can rebound in the second half.
Automakers will report February results Tuesday. In January, industrywide light-vehicle sales dropped 37 percent.
Some observers expect February’s sales to be even worse.
Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for the auto website , said consumers are becoming increasingly scared that they won’t have a job down the road.
“There’s so much uncertainty,” Toprak said. “Even if they have a job, they probably have friends and family that don’t, so it’s becoming more real.”
Crumbling consumer confidence has replaced tight credit markets as the biggest hurdle to selling cars, he said.
Meanwhile, housing values continue to tumble, also making consumers more cautious about how they spend their money.
In addition, fearful car buyers are well aware that General Motors and Chrysler are fighting to stay alive with the help of billions of dollars in loans from the federal government.
With all the headwinds consumers are walking into, analysts for J.D. Power and Associates on Thursday slashed their 2009 sales forecast by 1 million units to a seasonally annualized adjusted rate of 10.4 million units. That figure indicates what sales would be for the full year if they remained at that month’s pace, with adjustments for typical seasonal fluctuations.
Toprak is even more pessimistic, predicting 10.1 million units.
