(At last year's SEMA Show, Volvo displayed a hot rod version of the first Volvo, to the right in the photo. If Ford, Volvo and every other car-maker did things this original - and at least some of the concepts made it into production and offered great fuel mileage - you couldn't keep the buyers away from showrooms! But very few car companies have the necessary guts).

October's new car and truck sales numbers are in, and they're worse than anyone expected - at least publicly. Sales at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler plunged in October, their weakest performance in a quarter century.

GM plummeted 45.1% from a year earlier. Ford sold 132,248 cars and trucks, down 32%. Toyota outsold Ford on its way to their own 23% drop. Mercedes and Honda were down more than 24%, while Nissan, Hyundai and Chrysler were all down at least 31%.

Ford's US brands -- Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury -- fell 29.2%. Volvo plunged 52.1%.

Of the four biggest automakers in the United States, only two have reported monthly sales increases this  year: Toyota in April and GM in January.

For the second time in just two months, industry sales fell below 1 million. It was the US market's 12th-straight monthly decline and the second straight of more than 25%.

US auto sales have averaged 16.8 million this decade through 2007. This year 12 million might be a realistic goal. It's like 25% of car and truck sales have just disappeared.

(Ford's European Focus SST is exactly the kind of car the company should be selling in the US, and they should revive their SVT division to develop SVT or SST versions of the Focus, Fusion, and even the Taurus and the Lincoln MKS).

For entire post: SALES SHOCKER: GM DROPS 45%, INDUSTRY DOWN 32% OVERALL