Car market becomes a hard sell in US

Southfield, Michigan

THE car market that once invigorated the US economy has become a tough sell, with every major carmaker missing analysts' estimates for August in a further sign that the industry's six-year growth run has hit the end of the road.

Buyers are being offered the sweetest deals since the Great Recession of 2009 and yet are responding with a shrug, pushing the month's seasonally adjusted annual sales rate down to 17 million light vehicles, according to Autodata Corp. The pattern of steeper-than-predicted declines held true for Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co as well as for Japan-based makers Toyota, Nissan and Honda. Even the lone major company to report a gain, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, trailed estimates.