General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda see Car Sales Rise

The three automakers seem to have different answers.

Among the Detroit Three, General Motors said that its sales went up 4 percent last month, the first increase in 21 months. It said that it sold 177,603 vehicles and increased its market share for the third consecutive month. It claims that it now has 21 percent of the light vehicle market.

Ford reported a 3 percent rise in sales. It added that it sold a total of 132,483 Fords, Lincolns, and Mercurys last month. One good example is the Taurus, which Ford claims has tripled in sales over last year.

However, while it has experienced double digit increases in the sale of cars and crossovers, sales of SUVs and pickup trucks declined. Overall, Ford said that it made a profit of about $1 billion in the third quarter and the North American division experienced its first profitable quarter in four years.

Meanwhile, things were not as good for Chrysler. Like Pig Pen of the Charlie Brown comics, the company continues to be surrounded by dust. Its sales for October fell 30 percent below the same period last year. However, it did experience an improvement in sales from September partially because of the Cash for Clunkers Program. It said that it sold 65,803 vehicles in October. That is actually up 6 percent from September.

How did other automakers faire for October? Among the Japanese automakers, Toyota had an increase of 1 percent, selling 152,165 vehicles; Honda had a decrease of less than 1 percent selling 85,502 units; and Nissan had an increase of 5.6 percent selling 60,115 units.

Mercedes-Benz claimed that its sales increased 21.3 percent selling 18,193 vehicles among the German automakers, while Audi reported sales nearly reached its all-time record for October set last year.

via Detroit News