December Caps Strong 2012 Sales Year; Will Any Brands Go Out of Business in 2013? [With Chart]

Fiscal cliff, schmishcal schmiff. There was a late sense of fear felt in the U.S. economy that capped what has been the best sales year in the auto industry since 2007. As cars and houses are the U.S.’s primary movers and shakers, there was an underlying sense that if credit markets were to tighten up again, so would car sales. There’s a good chance we experienced some of that towards the end of December 2012 as we closed out the sales year.

But, we didn’t see much of it. Sure, some automakers like Suzuki folded up shop in November as the market kept strengthening, but most automakers had a highly successful year, some even setting all-time sales records like Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.

General Motors regained some its ground despite losing sales with Cadillac; Hyundai and Kia soared; and most of the Japanese automakers picked up where they left off before 2011′s tsunami wiped out their sales. Despite natural disasters and government fumbling, the auto market grew dramatically from 2011 as a whole.

But players like Mitsubishi and Lincoln stand in the shadows, leaving more questions than answers for the upcoming model year. Both have new products coming, but will they be too little, too late? We’ll see. In the meantime, below is how automakers in the U.S. fared, most quite well. It’s a promising sight as we head into 2013 with a slew of new and important vehicles on the horizon.