After three years of being bested by Toyota, General Motors is once again the world’s best selling automaker. General Motors sold 9,025,942 in 2011, a 7.6 percent increase over last year’s figures. General Motors even bested Volkswagen, who have made it a public goal to become the biggest automaker on the block. Toyota trailed both GM and VW though, whose sales dropped 6 percent in 2011.

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The New Year is upon us and all signs point to a stronger 2012 in regards to auto sales. Forecasts call for growth on a global scale with luxury vehicles leading the way and that means profits for GM, Nissan and the rest of the global players. Keep an eye out for Bullz-Eye.com’s 20 Cars to watch out for in 2012 and let’s hope the sales momentum from last year takes us to a better place in 2012!

From the Detroit Free Press:

Global auto sales will grow 6.7% this year with growth projected in all major markets but Europe, according to automotive consulting firm R.L. Polk.

Worldwide new vehicles sales are forecast to reach 77.7 million this year, with China accounting for the largest portion of the increase. New vehicle sales are expected to reach 17.9 million this year in the world’s largest auto market, up 16% from 2011, according to Polk.

The U.S. market is poised to expand to 13.7 million this year, up from about 12.8 million in 2011, with the luxury market as the fastest growing segment, increasing by more than 14%.

That bodes well for Ford and General Motors, which are working to restore their Lincoln and Cadillac brands to former glory. Both will unveil important new cars next week at the North American International Auto Show in at Cobo Center.

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You might not think it was possible this soon but Chevy is on pace for an all time sales record in 2011. That is a great sign for the global recovery and an even better sign that GM is on it’s way back as well. If the economy can continue to grow it will be interesting to see how high GM and Chevy in particular can go in regards to U.S. and Global sales!

From the Detroit Bureau:

With its 100th birthday barely fading in the rearview mirror, Chevrolet is on pace to set an all-time global sale record in 2011, having sold 4.8 million units through the end of November and with December off to a strong start.

Meanwhile, Chevrolet’s global market share has increased by nearly one half of a point this year, Russ Clark, Chevrolet’s marketing manager for midsized and performance cars, told TheDetroitBureau.com, while suggesting General Motors’ largest marque is steadily advancing towards its goal of becoming a truly global brand.

Sixty percent of all Chevrolets are now sold outside the United States, which had been the bowtie brand’s primary hunting ground for most of the past century, according to statistics cited by Clark during a conversation about Chevrolet’s business plans.

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After decades of dominating the commercial van market Ford is taking a huge risk by killing the best selling Econoline Van and replacing the workhorse with the Euro Transit Vans! Obviously the E-Series neded a redesign but will Ford leave some commercial consumers wanting more than what the Transit will deliver? If that indeed happens there will be openings for competitor to snatch some new sales from former Econoline buyers.

From StraightLine.com:

I think we all have an Econoline story. I know at least one person in this office learned to powerslide in a modern one. Another would consider selling his child for a first-generation, flat-nose pickup version. And I don’t know how many families I knew growing up in New England that needed every one of those seats to haul the kids to school.

But, all things must end and the body-on-frame, big-engined Econoline (now E-Series) is set to be replaced by 2013 by the full-size Ford Transit.

The New Transit will be built in the same Kansas City Assembly plant where the F-150 is built, but Ford is injecting some $1.1 billion into it for the new production. “The new Transit will be the smartest, most fuel-efficient way to move cargo or people,” said Tim Stoehr, Commercial Truck Marketing Manager for Ford.

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In a meeting at the 2011 Tokyo International Auto Show, Tetsuo Iwamura, Honda USA President and CEO, remarked that he was frustrated with slow sales of Honda’s Crosstour stating:

“In the case of the Crosstour, I’m really disappointed because that’s a nice car, [with] very beautiful styling, and it gives very good driving performance as well as packaging. But yet, we went a bit too far.”

Honda wanted to sell 40,000 units of the “lifestyle” crossover, but managed to move only 25,000 in 2010. This year they have only managed to move 16,679. Iwamura is confident that Crosstour sales can be salvaged with further improvements, but I have a different idea for Mr. Iwamura.

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Car sales picked up the pace in November but will it last? The annual rate of 13.8 million sales we might have turned the corner to better days ahead. Chrysler was up a staggering 45 percent and that isn’t a misprint.

From the Detroit News:

November shaped up to be a strong month for U.S. auto sales with all major automakers except Honda Motor Co. reporting better results than a year ago.

Honda’s sales of 83,925 were down 6 percent from a year ago, largely on inventory woes due to flooding in Thailand.

Chrysler Group LLC reported a whopping 45 percent sales increase in November in the first results of what is expected to be one of strongest months of the year for U.S. vehicle sales.

Conversely, General Motors Co. only saw sales grow 7 percent compared with a year ago.

Ford Motor Co. sits in the middle with total sales of 166,865, up 13 percent from 2010 results.

Toyota Motor Corp. said its sales were up 6.7 percent in November on volume of 137,960 units.

Chrysler, the biggest gainer for the month, sold 107,172 vehicles in November, the automaker’s sixth consecutive month of best year-over-year sales this year.

“With sales up 45 percent, November was another huge month for the Chrysler Group and our highest year-over-year sales gain of 2011,” said Reid Bigland, head of U.S. sales.

Strong sellers for the Auburn Hills automaker included the Chrysler 300 and 200 sedans, which contributed to the Chrysler brand’s 92 percent hike over last year and best November since 2008. Also boosting sales were the Dodge Charger, Avenger and Durango. The Fiat 500 notched 1,618 sales for the month.

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Apparently, if people were not rioting over two dollar waffle irons at Wal-Mart, they were buying cars on our nation’s most treasured holiday, Black Friday. The result of the strong sales last weekend caused November of this year to post sales at a 13.4% seasonally adjusted rate, 2% higher than the same period in 2010. In fact, this is the highest seasonal rate increase since “Cash for Clunkers” was operating in 2009. There are more factors contributing to November’s sales success than just Black Friday though.

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Fiat recently released October sales for the U.S. market, and the results are disappointing. Fiat sales of the 500 and 500C dropped to 1965, a 71% drop in sales from September. Also, this happened in a month that saw sales increase for many automakers, including Chrysler. There are various reasons for the decline including the 500 losing its “new car” appeal and the dealer network being small, but I only want to point to one source: Jenny from the Block.

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From Nissan News.com:

Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) today reported October U.S. sales of 82,346 units versus 69,773 units a year earlier, an increase of 18 percent. Nissan Division sales set a new October record, increasing 22.1 percent for the month to 75,484 units. Sales of Infiniti vehicles decreased 13.5 percent from the prior year, to 6,862 units.

NISSAN HIGHLIGHTS
- Nissan vehicles posted a new record for October sales with 75,484 units, an increase of 22.1 percent over the 61,843 units sold in October 2010.

- Versa – led by the all-new 2012 Versa Sedan in its second full month of sales – set a new October record with 8,889 deliveries, an increase of 47.1 percent over the prior year.

- Strong sales of the Nissan Altima continue, with 21,838 units marking an increase of 15.1 percent over the prior year and an October record.

- The Rogue crossover continues to gain momentum, with sales of 10,034 units marking a 13.2 percent increase over last year – another new October record. The 2012 Rogue, on sale now, is the first vehicle in Nissan’s lineup to offer the innovative, segment-exclusive Around View Monitor.

- Sales of the 100-percent electric Nissan LEAF totaled 849 units in October, with deliveries totaling 8,066 units of the innovative, zero-emissions vehicle since its December 2010 U.S. debut.

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When the Lincoln MKT was launched there wasn’t a soul out there who predicited block buster sales but what we are seeing now is not good for any sales chart.

Sales figures released from Ford indicate the Lincoln MKT 3 row luxury crossover came in with a pultry 369 units sold last month! That is compared to only 506 MKT’s sold in October 2010. We’re aware that the Lincoln MKT is a large and fairly expensive luxury vehicle but 369 sales in a fairly strong month? Come on…..We tested this crossover and thought it was a solid entry but it might be time for the Blue Oval to cut the price on the MKT and start moving units out of the showrooms and into garage’s or this might be one of those great ideas that just couldn’t get traction. One area that might help the MKT is that the unit will be used as the replacement for future limo’s now that the Town Car is being laid to rest. That’s all fine and dandy but what does that do to help the retail market for the MKT? It’s high time to get creative and get the MKT selling or there will be alot of dust collected at Lincoln dealerships on this pricy people mover.