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There’s lots of news today to show just how far the worldwide automotive industry has fallen in the last few months.

Get this:

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Toyota – yes, that Toyota – is going to shut plants for 11 days in February and another 11 days in March to keep inventories at an acceptable level due to low sales. These breaks come on top of a three day shutdown this month

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GM ended up struggling in China, which is a real worry.

Over all, GM sales in China were up, but not at the same pace as industry growth in 2008. Their commercial vehicle sales rose by 17%.

But it’s got to be troubling them that sales of GM’s flagship SAIC joint venture were actually down by 8.3% for the year. Chevrolet did OK for SAIC, but the much-vaunted Buick brand was somewhat abandoned (down 10%) by the Chinese.

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The good news in that story from our perspective is that Saab sales in China were actually 35% more in 2008 than in 2007, though I imgaine that’s on a pretty low base. Still, we’ll take all the good news we can get at the moment.

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The UAW and the Detroit carmakers are now around the table trying to hammer out further concessions to be made by union workers but the progress may be slowed down by the confusing language in the bridge oan documents, and importantly, by the fact that the “Car Czar” who is supposed to oversee progress by the Detroit automakers hasn’t been appointed yet. I’d have thought that all the seriousness shown by Congress and the White House would imply that that appointment would be made post haste.

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And further on the subject of the bridge loans, GM have received approval for another $5.4billion in mid-January.

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GM sources are saying that provided sales don’t drop much further than 2008 levels, they should be OK and not need to apply for any more money that what they’ve already been allocated:

He said how well the money holds out will depend on sales volume this year. He said he is hopeful that sales will not dip more than 1 million units below 2008’s depressed 13.1 million.

The $13.4 billion earmarked for GM may be sufficient, said a source close to the company.

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And on sales, analysts are predicting around 12.4 million vehicle sales in the US in 2009. There were 13.2 million in 2008. Apparently the first half of the year is going to be comatose, with things picking up in the second half.

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Pete De Lorenzo forecasts a lot more pain to come, primarily because there’s no way that the Detroit guys can realistically and effectively fulfill the requirements imposed by the White House by the deadline provided.

The 90 days given to GM and Chrysler to allegedly get their acts together reinforced how little Washington knows about the car business and the industry in general. The thread that Chrysler LLC is hanging by is on its last tendril, and the loans that the company received may only allow it to get out from under the debts owed to key suppliers. I said at the end of last year that I didn’t see a future for Chrysler beyond the first quarter, and nothing I’ve seen has given me a reason to change my mind. As for GM, they can rearrange their brands, deemphasize their brands, ice some brands or shelve some brands altogether, but that will have little or no effect on the company over the next three months, no matter how much foot stomping and hand-wringing goes on in Washington. Short of a complete cessation of state dealer franchise laws and a wholesale shift of corporate emphasis to just two divisions – Cadillac and Chevrolet – GM’s future will remain murky, at best, and well beyond the 90-day “window” too.

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Pontiac have killed off the G8 Sport Truck, which is going to be quite a blow to the Australian car industry as it was going to be manufactured here. They say it’s part of the review of the Pontiac brand, which they’re going to turn into a niche performance brand (therefore, utes don’t count).

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If you need something to lighten your mood after all that, I’d recommend heading over to look at Jalopnik’s funniest street signs.

Or, you could just admire the innovative Saab trailer, below, which was spotted on Facebook today.

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