DETROIT (Reuters) - “Ford Motor Co. said on Friday that U.S. auto industry sales to date in April were “terrible” as consumer confidence was hit by a slow housing market and rising gas prices.

“This month is terrible,” Ford chief sales analyst George Pipas said in an interview. “We are not even close to where we expected to be in April.”

Pipas said industry volume appeared to be down 10 percent to date before seasonal adjustment, but expected Ford’s U.S. retail share to hold steady around 13 percent.”

Earlier this week, General Motors Corp. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said the crisis in the U.S. mortgage market has hurt U.S. auto sales this month. Apparently, GM is offering lower-interest financing to customers with weaker credit ratings through this weekend in an effort to boost sales for April. Good luck with that, I guess GM hasn’t figured out what caused the “crisis”.