Report: April auto sales down for Big Three

Report: April auto sales down for Big Three

The Detroit News - - General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. probably will say U.S. sales fell in April as rising gasoline prices reduced consumer demand for new cars, Bloomberg News reported today.

Sales declined 3 percent from a year earlier for GM, 9.7 percent for Ford and 2.2 percent for DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler, according to the average adjusted estimates of six analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Toyota Motor Corp. may report little change in sales, said Ronald Tadross, a Banc of America Securities auto analyst.

"It might be an abnormally low month," George Magliano, New York-based director of auto research for Global Insight Inc., told Bloomberg in an interview. "It started off strong but just fell from there. The domestics may have to really ramp up incentives to get people to these dealerships."