US car sales tumbled by 23 per cent in September as showrooms emptied after the government-funded boom from the "cash for clunkers" programme, with General Motors and Chrysler hardest-hit.
Sales for General Motors Co and Chrysler - the two US manufacturers struggling to regain momentum after emerging from bankruptcy - dropped by 45 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively.
Ford - the only US car maker to have avoided bankruptcy - managed to hold its sales decline to 5 percent from a year earlier despite low inventories and reduced incentives for car shoppers.
Car makers had braced for a sharp pullback in September after the clunkers programme and taxpayer-funded credits of up to $4,500 drove sales sharply higher the month before.
The overall result was in line with those forecasts as industry-wide US car sales dropped 41 per cent from August, according to Autodata Corp.
On the annualised basis tracked by analysts, industry-wide US car sales dropped to 9.2 million vehicles in September, the weakest sales rate since April.
In a reversal of fortune that underscores how deep the decline in US car sales has cut over the four-year-long slump, China's overall vehicle sales for September were almost twice as large as the industry-wide US tally, according to an estimate provided by GM.
US sales for the three major Japanese car makers were also lower in September after gains in August during the short-lived cash-for-clunkers boom.
Honda sales were down 20 per cent in the month, Toyota Motor Co sales fell almost 13 per cent, and Nissan Motor Co sales were down 7 per cent.
Reuters