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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 1:19 p.m., Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Hawaii car sales slid by 11 percent last year

Advertiser Staff

Hawai'i's new automobile registrations tumbled by 11 percent last year as a slowing economy, tighter credit markets and higher unemployment affected new car sales.

There were 59,861 registrations of new cars and light trucks last year compared with 67,224 a year earlier, according to research by AutoCount, a company that compiles the figures for the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association. The registrations are thought to approximate car sales.

The research firm is projecting sales will decline again this year. It projected sales will dip by 4.1 percent to a little more than 57,000 units.