EU Car Market Falls 15%, NY Art Sale Augurs Supercar Collapse

Can you believe that GM used to claim that their foreign ops would prop-up the sinking North American market while they got their shit together? I mean, these are the same guys that were busy touting the advantages of a world car. Anyone who doubted that it’s a small world after all should have a gander at October sales stats across the pond [via Bloomberg UK]. “Registrations dropped to 1.13 million vehicles last month from 1.33 million a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said today in a statement. Sales for the first 10 months fell 5.4 percent to 12.8 million vehicles, accelerating from a 4.4 percent contraction through September.” And who got whacked the hardest? “GM’s sales in Europe fell 25 percent to 94,479 vehicles, with the Saab brand reporting a 28 percent plunge… Registrations in Europe by Toyota slumped 24 percent to 54,612 cars. Asia’s largest carmaker, leading GM in global auto sales this year, posted a 69 percent plunge in quarterly net income on Nov. 6. Deliveries of its Lexus brand fell 32 percent.” So, that’s the mass market, then. How about the top end?

Lamborghini, Maybach, Ferrari, Aston and the like tender their sales stats with a little less alacrity than the volume automakers. And the majority of the hyper-priced auto-exotica shuffles through the auction houses. Or at least it did. “A Damien Hirst painting of four skulls that was tipped to fetch at least $3 million at Phillips de Pury & Co.’s New York auction didn’t sell, the biggest upset of last night’s auction that missed presale low estimates by more than half,” Bloomberg reports. “It was the third sale this week to disappoint art dealers and may herald a decline that tracks the drop in stock markets.” So much for those who say that the top of the market is immune from the swings and roundabouts of an outrageous free market economy.