Susan Docherty will head marketing efforts for GM's four brands under the new management scheme. (Photo: General Motors)
National auto sales showed some refreshing gains for October, with General Motors rising for the first time in 21 months compared with the year before.
GM showed a 4 percent boost in sales and Ford gained 3 percent, but Chrysler continued its plunge, losing 30 percent compared with October 2008. Nissan was 6 percent ahead while Honda and Toyota showed essentially no percentage change.
The biggest gains were for the two automakers that have been bucking the downward trend all year; Subaru was up 41 percent for October while South Korea’s Hyundai-Kia gained a whopping 47 percent.
Overall, sales were off about 1 percent compared with October last year, the smallest drop of 2009.
GM’s sales increase was its first gain since 2005, with its four remaining brands – Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC – accounting for 95 percent of sales.
“We are not declaring victory, but we are making progress,” said Susan Docherty, vice president of U.S. sales.
The year-to-year results are a hopeful sign that the auto industry and the economy in general could be recovering from the financial collapse that staggered sales worldwide starting a little over a year ago. It’s also being heralded as the strongest sales month this year without government assistance.
But the monthly sales results are being compared with October 2008 when sales were already in the hopper, plummeting 32 percent compared with October 2007. Even with the gains this past month, the annualized sales rate for 2009 is only about 11.2 million, compared with the robust 16 million-plus annual sales for 2007 and prior years.
Some of the other winners for October 2009 included Mercedes-Benz and its Smart division, up 9 percent; Jaguar-Land Rover, up 5 percent; Volkswagen-Audi, up 4 percent; and Porsche, which gained 15 percent in sales.
Besides Chrysler’s drop, losers were Suzuki, off 50 percent; Mitsubishi, down 48 percent; BMW, down 19 percent; and Mazda, off 8 percent.
Ford positive sales report comes a day after the Dearborn, Mich., posted a nearly $1 billion profit in the first quarter.
