All about business

NEW YORK — Dismal auto sales last month may be one of the clearest signs yet that faltering consumer confidence and tighter credit are squeezing consumer spending.

"It went from the housing market to the car market," said Reggie Chambers III, sales manager at Anderson Automotive Group in Baltimore.

Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Chrysler LLC and Nissan Motor Co. all reported U.S. sales drops of more than 30 percent Wednesday; General Motors Corp. said sales were down 16 percent. The final two weeks of the month were especially grim for car dealers as stocks tumbled, Washington dickered and credit markets froze.

To be sure, the auto industry has been reeling all year, thanks to falling house prices and record gas prices, which soured buyers on the light trucks and large cars Detroit had depended on for profitability. Now, the credit crisis is making things worse, as buyers struggle to qualify for loans and automakers scale back leasing.

CarMax said Wednesday that it is laying off 600 employees as the auto retailer tries to cut costs because of a decline in car and truck sales.

Spokeswoman Trina Lee said the reductions are in its service operations departments at a majority of its 60 production superstores. The employees were responsible for reconditioning vehicles.

Lee says the Richmond, Va., company notified the affected workers Wednesday.

The stock market roller coaster has made car buyers even more nervous. Stocks had a one-day loss, on paper, of $1 trillion Monday, for the first time in history. As the market fell, some luxury vehicle buyers called Toyota dealers asking for refunds on deposits they’d made, said Don Esmond, senior vice president of auto operations for Toyota in the U.S.

The last two weeks were "tantamount, really, to a natural disaster," said George Pipas, Ford’s top sales analyst bad credit payday loans. Showroom traffic looked like it does around a large storm, or in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he said.

"There’s just scare in the air," said Kitty Van Bortel, who owns both a Ford dealership and a Subaru dealership in Rochester, N.Y. "My opinion would be that sales are down because of the unknown, and that’s always the worst.

"People really don’t want to make a large purchase not knowing what exactly is going to happen."

Ray Ciccolo, president of Village Automotive Group, which operates six dealerships in the Boston area, said one lender has asked him to guarantee more loans, meaning that if the borrower doesn’t pay a set portion of the loan, his company is on the hook for that amount. In the past, only borrowers with bad credit required a guarantee.

Chief Executive Mike Jackson of AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. dealership group, said tougher credit requirements from banks and finance companies — and limits on money to fund leases — have cost the 250-store chain 20 percent of its sales volume so far this year.

"Our standards have tightened," said Todd Denbo, a lending product manager at Wells Fargo & Co.

"We want customers to come in, even though it’s a difficult time, and sit down with a banker and find the right solution for them. It may not be the auto loan that’s the right fit for the customer."

Customers like Dee Gordon, 40, of Dansville, N.Y., are taking their time. Gordon was shopping with her 18-year-old daughter for an $8,500 used car.

"They’re going to be there, I keep telling my daughter," she said. "Nobody’s buying as fast as you think they are anymore."

Even trade-ins of gas guzz