US car sales for April were 9 per cent down at 670,637 from 737,334. That means a year-to-date drop of 5.4% to 2,539,393 - from 2,683,405.

With around 25 manufacturers seeing sales fall for the first third of the year, it is clear that the pain is being felt widespread. The two big losers year to date have been Mitsubishi and Pontiac with sales falling by 31.3 per cent and 17.4 per cent respectively. But Toyota, Ford and Honda have done well in a difficult sector.