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The worst hit segment of the company's vehicles was its SUV division, which saw its sales plummet by a massive 53% in the quarter. It's Mercury brand vehicles were off by 44%, and its vehicles under the Ford flagship division dipped by nearly 40%. The company is currently trying to sell its Volvo division, and did not include Volvo figures in their numbers. Volvo sales were off by an even more extreme 64% during the month.

Before the release of today's sales figures, industry tracker Edmunds.com was expecting to see the company show a drop of around 30% in the quarter. Based on the miscalculation on the Ford sales figures, it remains to be seen how accurate Edmunds.com is with its prediction of an average 30% decline in sales for all the major auto makers in the month.

Ford was particularly hard hit by a slowdown in its fleet sales to buyers such as rental car companies. The economic slowdown forced several major car rental companies to reduce the purchases with Ford, and the result was a 65% drop in its fleet sales. This follows a tough month of December as well, which saw the companies fleet sales dip by 42%.

So this year seems to be starting off with much of the same for the auto industry, which is going through some seriously tough times.

Ford continues to deny that it will be needing to reach out for government aid to help it get through the current slowdown, but unless its sales start to turn around in the U.S., the company could easily find itself knocking on Washington's door for its share of bailout money.

As we mentioned yesterday, despite its low stock price (currently the stock is trading down 2.6% to $1.83), it is probably still too early to look toward the company as a possible value play at this point. It definitely appears as though the entire auto industry has a ways to go before buyers start flooding the show room floors again.