Automakers across the United States continued to suffer from the worst sales figures in the last fifteen years as restricted credit as well as high fuel prices kept both consumers and dealers away.

Sales figures for September revealed that industry wide sales of autos had fallen below the 1 million mark for the first time since 1993. According to the sales tracker Autodata, overall industry sales plunged by 27% to 964,873 vehicles last month. The decline in sales was broad-based with Japanese brands suffering similar double-digit percentage declines that had hit American automakers few months back. Overall sales of Asian auto brands fell by 31% while domestic automakers experienced a slide of more than 24% in sales.

This time the decline in auto sales is being blamed on the tightening of credit in the money market. Many consumers are unable to get loans to buy a car while a large number of dealers find their own credit cut off, causing extensive failures. A few months back US automakers had suffered significant drop in sales due to shooting prices of gasoline which had prompted most consumers to shun larger trucks and SUVs in favour of smaller and more fuel-efficient cars.