-By Julie Enzweiler, Nielsen Online

Total North American auto sales are down 32 percent from October 2007 to October 2008 with November’s sales forecast not showing much improvement.

As the stock market continues its downward spiral and economic conditions deteriorate, consumers are talking online about holding tight to their wallets and are less likely to make a big purchase such as a vehicle.

The number of consumers that were seeking vehicle information on sites like AOL Autos, MSN Autos and Yahoo Autos began to decline around the June-July time frame, which is exactly the same time that vehicle sales and the stock market began to fall.

The unique audience levels for AOL Autos and MSN Autos have a strong correlation to vehicle sales especially in the last three months (1.0; 0.90 respectively); however, Yahoo Autos seems to be quite unique in the sense that over the last 12 months and even more recently there is no correlation between visits and sales (0.01, last  three months).