January car sales slump 17pc

Official figures out today show Australian car sales continued to dwindle in January.

Around 76,000 cars were sold in the month in seasonally adjusted terms, a drop of 1.1 per cent since December and almost 17 per cent fewer than in the same time last year.

The figures come amid uncertainty about the future outlook for carmaker Holden, after its US parent company General Motors announced that it would be cutting 47,000 jobs, with more than half to come from overseas plants.

Holden says it will examine every part of its Australian operations in light of the announcement and workers at its Adelaide plant say it could be several weeks before they know how many jobs will go.

... read original article
Thu 19th February 2009 - 02:26pm