Economic woes continue to plague the economy at large and are being felt specifically in the automotive industry with General Motors, Toyota, Ford, and Chrysler all reporting declining sales figures for the month of February.

With all sales figures combined, new car sales were down 6.3 percent for the month, for a total of 1.17 million vehicles sold. This brings the year-to-date sales drop to 5.4 percent with only 2.22 million units moved.

In a conference call reported by Automotive News, the General Motors vice president of sales, service, and marketing, Mark LaNave, blamed alarming economic news stories for the poor sales. "I personally believe," he said, "that this discussion of a recession hurts consumer confidence."

For the month of February, Toyota sold 182,169 vehicles representing a drop of 2.8 percent. Chrysler reported a dip of 14 percent, with Ford coming in 6.7 percent lower. General Motors was down 12.9 percent.

There were, however, some bright spots in the otherwise troubling earnings picture, with American Honda Motor Co. coming up 4.9 percent and Nissan Motor Co. picking up 1.2 percent. Mazda was ahead 6.7 percent, Volkswagen 1.2 percent, Mercedes-Benz 7.3 percent, and Suzuki 2.5 percent.

Echoing industry concerns overall, Jim O'Sullivan, Mazda CEO for North America said, in a prepared statement, "The economic outlook remains in doubt, with increasing crude oil prices, continued consumer uncertainty and further concern in housing causing consumers to think twice before purchasing big-ticket items like a new car."