L.A. car sales sag

So much for any cash-for-clunkers after-glow. The September numbers for the L.A. area are quite bad - overall new vehicle registrations fell almost 18 percent from the same period a year earlier, with domestics down 24.7 percent, Japanese 15.6 percent, and European 26.4 percent. Korean makes were up sharply, but on a base of just 801 sales (all numbers courtesy of the Southland Motor Car Dealers Association). The local figures confirm earlier industry reports for the U.S. as a whole. As has been the case for most of the year, it's not whether an automaker did badly - it's the degree of bad.

--BMW -38.2%
--Chevrolet -22.9%
--Ford -9.7%
--Hummer -69.2%
--Lexus -33.1%
--Volkswagon -9.2%
--Toyota/Scion -8.9%
--Honda -7.1%

One amazing stat: Just three Saabs were sold in September in the L.A. area - perhaps a reflection of GM selling the brand to Sweden's Koenigsegg Group AB (with the help of Swedish loans guarantees).