According to Automotive News:

DETROIT -- With Americans preoccupied with the festering economy, U.S. new-car sales suffered in February.

General Motors said sales for the month declined 12.9 percent to 268,737 vehicles. Toyota, Ford and Chrysler also posted noticeable declines while Honda and Nissan said its sales improved.

With all automakers reporting, total sales for February fell 6.3 percent to 1.17 million vehicles. Year-to-date sales are down 5.4 percent to 2.22 million vehicles.

" February seemed to be a tough month overall for the industry," Mark LaNeve, GM vice president of sales, service and marketing, said in a conference call with analysts and journalists.

" Traffic was soft, business was tough all month. And lack of [consumer] confidence came into play. We saw a lot of red numbers on the board. Toyota, Ford, all had a difficult month."

LaNeve said consumers are hesitating to make new-vehicle purchases because of the steady din of bad economic news. " I personally believe that this discussion of a recession hurts consumer confidence," he said.

Toyota's tough month
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. posted a 2.8 percent sales decline in February, selling 182,169 vehicles during the month. When adjusted for the extra sales day of Feb. 29, Toyota, Lexus and Scion sales declined 6.6 percent.

Among Toyota's disappointments was the Tundra pickup truck. Although up considerably from last February's selldown month, the 14,400 units sold in February were far below the 18,000 units Toyota needs to hit its 200,000 annual target this year. Surprisingly, however, the Tundra outsold the Tacoma compact pickup.

Pflughaupt said the full-size pickup and sport-utility segments " could get tougher before it gets better." Toyota has " about 40,000" Tundras in inventory, he said.

Despite gas prices inching toward $4 a gallon mark in some regions, even Toyota's fuel-efficient vehicles such as Prius, Corolla and RAV4 saw declines in February, although the subcompact Yaris and compact Scion xB showed improvements. Overall, Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicle sales declined by 7 percent.

On the Lexus brand side, every volume vehicle saw declines, including such stalwarts as the IS sedan series and the RX 350 sportwagon. Despite the decline, it was still the second-best February for Lexus.

Monthly sales figures, as reported by the Automotive News Data Center, are unadjusted for sales days. There were 25 sales days last month compared with 24 in February 2007.

Chrysler and Ford ills continue
Chrysler LLC sales dropped 14.0 percent in February. The lone bright spot for Detroit's No. 3 automaker was that car sales actually rose 9 percent for the month. But truck sales still rule the roost at Chrysler, and they were off 22 percent in February.

Landry said Chrysler cut sales to rental fleets again last month and said there would be double-digit declines every month for the rest of the year.

Ford Motor Co. -- despite some isolated bright spots -- posted a 6.7 percent drop in sales vs. a year ago. Ford Motor said Monday that its sales of 196,060 vehicles in February were lower in part because of a 20 percent reduction in deliveries to daily rental car fleets.

Sales of the Ford Edge crossover climbed 45.9 percent to 11,638. Lincoln, Ford Motor's premium brand, saw a 2 percent sales gain for its vehicles.

But with sales of 52,548, the Ford F-150 truck line struggled, posting a 4.9 percent decline.