Although the economy continues to lurch toward recovery at a snail’s pace, some automakers are defying expectations, and posting big gains on the sale charts. For the month of October, the big winners were Chrysler and Volkswagen. Chrysler sold 21,244 cars last month, a 28% increase when compared to October of 2010. High demand for the recently revised 200 and 300 sedans and high incentives helped bring traffic to the showrooms.

Volkswagen was another winner. They sold 28,028 cars last month, a 40% increase from October of last year. Volkswagen points to strong sales of their recently redesigned Passat sedan as the reason for drawing more sales. The good news is not expected to stop as November starts either.

Many automakers and analysts expected strong October sales, and are claiming high sales to continue through November. Although the economy is still a blight on auto sales, analysts expect outside variables to drive sales forward. First, they claim there is a lot of pent up demand for new vehicles since the age of the average car in this country is 11 years old. Secondly, inventory levels are returning to pre-quake levels for the Japanese manufacturers. Finally, a combination of high used car prices and incentives on new car purchases may sway consumers to purchase new cars instead of used ones. The fourth quarter of this year for automakers is shaping up to be much better than expected.

Source: Automotive News

Audi News.com announced that Audi’s January sales in the U.S. increased 20%, which set another monthly record.

The strong January 2011 results followed the best year that the luxury brand has seen in the U.S. as sales surpassed 100,000 for the first time to finish the full year at 101,629 vehicles. The 8.6% share that Audi held in overall U.S. imported luxury vehicle sales at the end of 2010 also set a record for the brand.

Audi models have already earned significant awards in the U.S., including the Edmunds.com Technology Breakthrough Award to the 2011 Audi A8, four category winners in the Strategic Vision 2010 Total Value Index and the EyesOn Design “Best Production Vehicle” awarded to the Audi A6, which is scheduled to arrive this Fall.

Read the full press release.

December car sales rebounded from 2009 and 2010 turned into a “decent” year for the U.S. auto industry . All signs are 2011 “should” continue to grow back to pre-meltdown levels. Here is a December 2010 breakdown from AutoBlog.com from each brand and there are a few surprises in there.

December sales ended 2010 on a largely positive note for most manufacturers. You’re probably more interested, however, in how these brands and companies performed for the entire year of 2010. Hold on to your Sirius satellite radios, because those numbers are on their way, but first we have to dispense with December.

There’s actually nothing too shocking in the sales numbers for December, as most manufacturers finished strongly, with an increase in sales versus December 2009, and those that were down were either not down by very much (Lexus, Jaguar, Toyota and Dodge) or are the usual suspects (Mercury, Lincoln, Volvo, Chrysler and Smart).

Dodge and Chrysler are looking forward to selling significantly updated hardware in 2011, while Toyota will continue to work its way out of the dog house with those consumers that lost some faith in the Japanese juggernaut during its recall debacle in 2010. With that in mind, we expect even more brands to be bragging about the blockbuster year of sales they just had when the next new year rolls around.

Read the full article.

China’s car sales are turbo charged and poised to keep growing in the short term and possibly long term as well. March 2010 sales in the Chinese market soared by 63% and officials are forecasting over 17 million units this year. GM reported an increase of 68%, Ford was up a whopping 84% and the lot goes on. How high can they go is anyone’s guess but this year will cement China as the world’s largest auto market for the foreseeable future.

From the Detroit News:

Shanghai — China’s passenger car sales jumped 63 percent in March from a year earlier as manufacturers scrambled to meet strong demand driven by tax cuts and government subsidies, a state-affiliated industry group reported today.

Passenger car sales rose to 1.26 million vehicles in March, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Weak sales in the United States and a surge in car purchases by newly affluent Chinese buyers helped to make this the world’s largest auto market last year, when total vehicle sales jumped 45 percent over 2008 to 13.6 million units.

Read the full article here.

U.S. auto sales gained more momentum in March with Ford sales up 39%; Chrysler down 8%; GM up 21%. The big winner appears to be Toyota with an increase of almost 41%. Some analysts expected sales to come in even stronger with the heavy incentive wars kicking in last month but hey, it beats 2009 by miles….

From the Detroit News.com:

Toyota posted a nearly 41 percent increase in sales last month after boosting incentives amid recall problems plaguing the world’s largest automaker.

Ford Motor Co. sales rose 39.8 percent last month while Chrysler Group LLC posted an 8 percent decline.

Meanwhile, General Motors Co. said today its vehicle sales jumped 21 percent sales in the U.S. last month, led by a 76 percent increase for its Buick brand and popular new launch vehicles.
010 U.S.
Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealers sold 178,546 vehicles last month and the Dearborn automaker said its retail market share rose for the 17th time in the last 18 months.

Read the full article here.