Oct. 9--U.S. auto stocks sank to historic lows Wednesday, as investor fears about credit availability and the weakening global economy combined to produce a stunning sell-off of Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and dozens of other auto stocks.

"Everyone is bailing," Mark Warnsman, an automotive analyst for Calyon Securities and a former Ford executive, told the Free Press. "There is a crisis of confidence out there."

Ford shares lost 26 cents, or 8.9%, Wednesday to close at $2.66. They had traded as low as $2.15 earlier in the day.

GM shares fell 65 cents, or 8.6%, to close at $6.91.

Just four years ago, Ford shares traded in the mid-teens, GM shares were above $40 -- and investors complained about the deflated stock values.

The shares of several auto suppliers also fell, including Detroit-based American Axle & Manufacturing, whose shares closed at a historic low of $3.81.

The breathtaking devaluations by investors bring the market capitalization, or total stock-market value, for Detroit's two automakers to just under $10 billion -- combined. Ford is now worth $6.02 billion, and GM is worth $3.91 billion.

Toyota Motor Corp., by contrast, is worth almost $106 billion, although its stock value has fallen by more than 40% in the last year.

During the Automotive Hall of Fame induction ceremony Tuesday night, Jason Vines, a former spokesman for Ford and Chrysler, joked about how a share of Ford stock was cheaper than a gallon of gas or a cappuccino at Starbucks.

"Tomorrow, go out and buy some Ford stock, for God's sake," Vines, now Compuware's senior vice president and communications chief, recalled telling the crowd. "You're going to be rich."

'Everybody's in a panic'

A confluence of factors, shareholders and experts said, are responsible for the sell-off.

Aside from the acerbic U.S. economy, which the Conference Board predicts will further contract through the first half of 2009, fears that consumers cannot get auto loans to buy Detroit's cars and trucks seem to have reached a fever pitch.

"I think everybody's in a panic because nobody can get a loan to buy a car," John Wojdyla, a Ford shareholder in Royal Oak, who has decided to hold on to his shares, told the Free Press. "News reports that people can't get auto loans is a part of it."

Indeed, CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., reports that only 64% of consumers applying for auto loans so far this year have been approved, compared with 83% a year ago.