MI Car Dealers Must Have Been Busy: All But One Automaker Increased January Sales

Feb. 8, 2011 - PRLog -- DETROIT, M.I. – MI car dealers may have been just as anxious as automakers to see the final sales amounts for Jan. 2011 since December closed on such a positive note. There was good news once more as all but one automaker had an increase in sales from January last year as reported by Motor Intelligence.
Customers showed MI car dealers and those dealerships across the U.S. that there is still a lot of interest to replace old clunkers for newer, more efficient cars and trucks being manufactured today. The new year is proving to be a positive one already as U.S. sales are up 17 percent for January than they were for the first month last year. Car sales alone were up to 819, 895 for January.  This is still below the 1 million cars that were sold in 2008, but much better than during the recession when the sales dropped below 700,000.
MI car dealers representing the General Motors brands helped contribute to one of the highest increases of all the automakers this past month at 22.7 percent from 2010. General Motors reported selling 178,896 vehicles which is up from the 146,825 figure last year.
“January signals a good start to the year for us, for the industry, and we think it’s a good sign for the overall U.S. economy,” said Don Johnson, Vice President of U.S. sales for General Motors, in a press release.
The breakdown increase for each brand under General Motors is as follows:
•   Cadillac:  49 percent
•   Buick:  32 percent
•   GMC:  30 percent
•   Chevrolet: 19 percent
Although Chevrolet grew the least amount, this popular brand makes up close to 70 percent of GM’s total sales every year. Other increases included passenger cars up 15 percent, crossovers jumped 31 percent and full-size pickup trucks grew 28 percent. The final outcome for General Motors was an increase in market share from 19.58 percent to the current 21.8 percent.
Detroit MI car dealers saw Ford and Chrysler increase as well. Ford increased overall 13.2 percent while Chrysler matched General Motors at 22.7 percent. Car sales for both automakers decreased with 0.4 percent down for Ford and 17.2 percent down for Chrysler. The largest shift was total light truck increases with 21.1 percent for Ford and 36.6 percent for Chrysler.
Other automakers saw overall increases such as Honda Motor Co with a 13percent increase and Nissan with 14.8 percent. Toyota was also a success story this month. The last month Toyota had a positive increase in sales from the previous year was September 2010; losing 4.4 percent in October, 7.3 percent in November and 5.5 percent for December.
[Rewind: Detroit MI Automakers Saw Auto Sales Increase in September]
Even with these drops, Toyota Motor Corp still remained No. 1 in auto sales across the globe, with General Motors in close second. In January, Toyota saw a 17.3 percent increase over its sales last year.
MI car dealers as well as the automakers are sure to be hoping this trend continues as the year moves through the months. Check back as MI Auto Times follows the monthly sales data.
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[Source(s): Motor Intelligence, Personal Money Store, The News Tribune]