New car sales: As goes California...

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As one of the world’s vibrating poles of all things automotive, California has been at the front of many of the industry’s biggest trends for decades. And as a nearly $2 trillion economy, the Golden State also has long been a bellwether for economic trends.

So the rest of the automotive nation better take note: If you thought last year was bad, just wait until you catch up to California.

According to new figures released by the California New Car Dealers Assn. today, we took it in the proverbial pants out here on the Pacific Rim.

But before we get to that, a pop quiz: What are the two brands of cars that actually had increased sales last year? Answer after the jump.

While nationwide auto sales fell 18% in 2008, California was down 23%, with 1,447,460 cars and light trucks sold. The difference between last year’s sales and those in 2007 -- a delta of 443,570 vehicles -- is more than the total number of cars sold in most states. One in every nine cars sold in the nation was sold here.

The declines were particularly pronounced in the fourth quarter, when sales of new vehicles in California fell 39%, a four-percentage-point faster clip than the rest of the nation.

Predictably, the Big Three took it extra hard on the nose, with a generous side of beat down. Combined, GM, Ford and Chrysler sales in California declined 33% last year compared with 2007; nationwide they were down 24%. All told, the Big Three ended 2008 with a skimpy 32% market share here, compared with 47.5% nationwide.

But even Asian brands that found a foothold here before the rest of country had a tougher time in the West: their sales were down 18% in California compared with 12% in the 50-nifty.

How about the segments? Surely the sun must have shined on small cars here! Nope. Sales of those vehicles were down 17%, compared with a 10% decline from sea to shining sea. Trucks and sport-utility vehicles ... well, let’s not even talk about that.

The numbers just keep going and going all the way down. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any darker, the good folks at CNCDA brought out their crystal ball. They predict a further 15% decline in Golden State car sales this year. Extrapolate that to the entire country and we’ll see nationwide sales drop under 12 million in 2009.

Another interesting factoid: While the Ford F-series trucks were easily the top-selling vehicles in the nation last year, they weren’t even the top-selling pickup in California, where just 23,413 sold last year.

Here, the Chevy Silverado (24,295) beat it out, as did eight other vehicles, including the No. 1-selling Toyota Camry (60,871) and -- we are in the land of the perpetual sun and injectable silicon, after all -- the BMW 3-series (24,977).

As for the brands that increased sales: Mini and Jaguar, up 23% and 4%, respectively.Not that surprising, when you stop to think about it.

-- Ken Bensinger