The second day of plummeting stocks on Wall Street on Wednesday, September 17 affected major automakers and associated industries already struggling to overcome changed consumer preference and flagging sales in the face of high gas prices.

At the close of trading General Motors stood at $9.98 a share down 86 cents or 7.93 percent while rival Ford dropped 1.38 percent or 6 cents to close at $5.01 a share.

AutoNation saw a 96 cent drop, a loss of 7.71 percent, closing at $11.93. Penske Automotive Group posted an 8.90 percent decline, down $1.08 to close at $11.05 while Group I Automotive lost $1.53 cents, which translates to a dip of 5.96 percent to $1.53 a share.

Auto supplier Johnson Controls slipped 30 cents or 0.94 percent to end at $31.66 while Lear Corp. fell 7.93 percent to $12.28, closing at $109. One of the few gainers for the day was Canadian supplier Magna International Inc, which climbed 2.7 percent of $1.53 a share to close at $58.12.

Rick Wagoner, General Motors CEO, speaking during an interview with Bloomberg, characterized sales in September as "OK," but expressed concern over the effect of the Wall Street declines on consumer confidence.

"We'll have to see the impact from all the bad news out of Wall Street in terms of the consumer psyche," said Wagoner.