The little ray of hope in the dismal economic scenario that auto sales might rebound in January has vanished. The auto industry has seen the biggest slump since 1982. But the dismal consumer mood indicates a 30% decline in the automotive sales.

Edmunds. com predicts that Chrysler LLC's sales will decline the most, or about 48%, followed by 38% for General Motors Corp., 29.8% for Ford Motor Co., 28.1% for Nissan, 24.5% for Toyota and 22.9% for Honda.

"Retail sales are flat, but total sales will be down due to fleet cuts," Caldwell said. "January wasn't as bad as what some dealers and manufactures were bracing for." She also said that some stabilization in the sales during the month of January, is a positive sign.

During the beginning of January both Ford and Toyota said sales the first two weeks of January started off better than December, but it reversed by mid-January.

Usually automotive sale in January is worse than December's sales. In December, the sale is boosted by big year-end sales and people have more time to shop because of the Christmas holidays.

But there is still a big question mark on the efficacy of the measures taken by Obama administration and last year's economic package to rebound the economy of automotive industry.