Auto sales in the U.S. for September hit a 15-year low at an average 27 percent decline as tight credit, high gasoline prices, and growing financial anxieties drove consumers away from new car purchases.

Toyota Motor Corp. posted its largest one month drop in forty years, falling 32 percent, with Honda down 24 percent, Ford (Lincoln and Mercury) 34 percent, Chrysler LLC 33 percent, and General Motors 16 percent.

With industry sales down 27 percent to 965,160 light vehicles, the numbers fell below a million for the first month since January 1993, carrying automakers into the eleventh month of the ongoing slump.

In a statement Mark Barnes, Volkswagen Group of America COO, characterized current conditions as "the toughest economy we've seen in a long time." He cited the 777 point plunge of the Dow Jones, the floundering bailout package, and Hurricane Ike as negative contributing factors.

"Although up overall from last year, incentive levels remained flat from August to September despite worsening economic conditions," said Jesse Toprak, Edmunds' executive director of industry analysis. "The high incentive costs of heavily discounted 2008 models are being offset by the low incentive costs of the 2009 models entering the marketplace."

Although such an economic climate might suggest increased purchase incentives, most automakers did not boost such inducements significantly for the month of September. Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds, discussed incentives in an article for Automotive News.

"Although up overall from last year, incentive levels remained flat from August to September despite worsening economic conditions," he said. "The high incentive costs of heavily discounted 2008 models are being offset by the low incentive costs of the 2009 models entering the marketplace."