In February, US auto sale dropped to the lowest rate since December 1981. The 41 per cent drop represents the huge economic uncertainty that is keeping American auto buyers away from new purchases.

The automaker General Motors led the sinking industry sales figures with a 53 per cent drop in sales. Toyota, the world’s largest automaker saw a drop of 40 per cent in February sales figures. Honda Motor Co., Japan’s second-largest carmaker, had a 38 percent drop and Nissan Motor Co.’s sales fell 37 percent.

“We are in an automotive depression amid ‘the Great Recession,’ ” Standard and Poor’s analyst Efraim Levy said in a sobering report Tuesday. “Shell-shocked consumers fearful for their jobs, the value of their homes and stock market assets are wary of making the sizable discretionary purchases of new vehicles.”