Mazda North American Operations, the Irvine-based U.S. arm of Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp., saw December auto sales fall 13%.
Car sales fell sharply in the month, while truck sales were slightly off, according to Mazda.
Mazda sold 20,866 cars and trucks in December, down from 20,056 in the year-ago period. Car sales fell 17% to 14,464 units. Truck sales slipped 1.4% to 6,402.
The automaker seems to be suffering more than the industry as a whole.
December sales for all automakers aren’t out yet. But in November, U.S. auto sales were down 1% to 1.2 million vehicles from the year-ago period.
For the year through November, U.S. auto sales were up 1% to 15.4 million vehicles.
Sales of the Mazda6, the automaker’s most popular model, fell 23% to 7,006 cars. The company also lost sales from its discontinued Protege model.
Mazda fared a little better for all of 2004. The company’s sales for the year rose 1.6% to 263,882 vehicles. Higher car sales offset a 20.2% decline in truck sales.
