Volkswagen shares tumbled as much as 3.8% in the overnight session on Germany's Xetra after the President and CEO of Volkswagen China told Nikkei that the company will likely end the year with flat or lower sales volume in China compared to last year. This makes Volkswagen the latest in a line of car manufacturers and dealers to paint a picture of a continuing global collapse for the industry. 

Previously, Volkswagen had expected 4% growth in China this year. China is the company's largest single market with it contributing more than 40% to global sales last year, inclusive of Hong Kong.

Jochem Heizmann, the president and CEO at Volkswagen China, tried to make the point that the automobile market in China was still a ways from hitting its ceiling by citing that low single digit growth, should it occur, still represented a significant amount of business for any carmaker in such a large country.

He told Bloomberg: "Hopefully, the decline of the market in connection with the China-U.S. problems is temporary." Heizmann stated that he thought VW had "good chances" to grow faster than the industry for the rest of the year on account of its numerous coming SUV launches. 

These concerns about China echo concerns Renault raised on its recent earnings report. Renault just posted a larger drop in third-quarter sales than analysts expected. Renault blamed the poor numbers on a global slowdown in sales in places like China and Iran, as well as on new emissions standards.

Just yesterday, we wrote an article talking about how the U.S. automobile industry decline was accelerating during the month of October. 

Scott Adams, the owner of a Toyota dealership in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, told CNBC: “We are definitely seeing business pull back. September was off some, but this month our car sales are down 12 percent and our truck sales are down 23 percent.”

Mark Scarpelli, president of Raymond Chevrolet and Kia in Antioch, Illinois stated that "Customer traffic has moderated. There is a little bit more of a pause because of the higher interest rates." He said that although sales are keeping pace with the prior year, people are taking longer to buy.

We also recently wrote that the uptick in interest rates was one factor having a profoundly negative impact on the automobile sales industry. The lack of incentives was another primary culprit for helping to slow the sector.