Sales at Orange County auto dealers fell faster than the national yearly average in February but did slightly better than the rest of the country in the past three months, according to the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association, an industry trade group.
Last month, sales at local dealers fell 46% from a year earlier to 5,446 autos. The decline was steeper than the 41% drop for U.S. auto sales for the 12 months through February.
Local dealers did a little better in the three months through February. Sales for that period were off 36% to 22,174 autos, slightly better than the national 38% decline for the three months.
Dealers have been slumping for the past year as the recession and financial crisis have devastated sales. For all of 2008, auto sales here fell 22%, worse than the national decline of 18%.
The auto dealers group predicts a recovery this year, “simply due to the fact that sales cannot get much lower.”
Some dealers and online auto marketers said they’ve started to see more shoppers in recent months.
Local sales of all auto brands fell in February from a year earlier, except Kia, Jaguar and Suzuki. Among major brands, Dodge, Toyota, Volvo and Chrysler saw declines of 50% to 60%.
