Motor companies remain pessimistic

Volkswagen AG's Audi luxury-vehicle unit doesn't expect to reach its goal of 100,000 US sales this year because of the country's financial crisis, the division's US chief said.

"Given the economic climate right now, 100,000 will probably not be in the cards," Johan de Nysschen said in an interview on Sunday in New York. "We all had anticipated some degree of economic adversity. We didn't imagine the largest one-day drop in the history of mankind," he said, referring to the 778-point decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Sept 29. His comments follow a 3.9 percent drop from a year earlier in Audi's US sales through September, as the Ingolstadt, Germany-based automaker sold 65,817 cars and sport-utility vehicles. For all of 2007, its sales rose 3.8 percent to 93,508.

Audi's US unit, based in Herndon, Virginia, should "break through the 100,000 barrier next year", De Nysschen said. "We're well-positioned to capitalize on the market's increased awareness of fuel-efficiency," with vehicles such as the Q7 SUV. "The market has been challenging all year and the rate of deterioration in the market seems to be accelerating," he said. Industrywide sales of luxury autos, excluding so-called sport-wagon crossovers, fell 29 percent in September from a year earlier, after a 15 percent drop in August, according to Autodata Corp.