Ford new vehicle sales fall 8% year-on-year

Ford announced new car sales dropped 8.1% year-on-year in September, reinforcing assessments from industry experts that the market is levelling out.

The decline was not as bad as analysts had expected, which was estimated at around 8.5%.

Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford sold 204,447 units last month, and the company said it posted fleet sales of 42,120 in the same period, a sharp decline of 21%.

Sales for the two other major US carmarkers General Motors and Fiat Chrysler also declined in September.

After six years of booming auto sales, signs suggest that the consistent increase is beginning to fade. Ford itself has warned about the high likelihood of declines in sales towards the latter end of 2016.

"We expect industry sales to remain strong but at a lower level than last year," said Mark LaNeve, Ford's sales head.

"In our view, vehicle sales between 16mn and 17mn units are consistent with a healthy household sector. We expect future consumption growth to rely less on growth in motor vehicle sales and more on other components of consumption in a manner that leaves overall consumption growth more or less unchanged," said Barclays Research's Blerina Uruci in a research note sent to clients.