October Auto Sales Up… Or Down

Frank Williams
by Frank Williams

U.S. auto sales showed their first overall increase since May, with a 1.2 percent gain over last October– if you don't adjust for selling days. If you do, (as does BusinessWeek) then sales were down about 3 percent.. The good news: sales growth by GM, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. The bad news: Ford and Chrysler weren't so fortunate (as in very, very unfortunate). Bloomberg attributes their sales tumble to the popularity of small cars and car-based SUVs (aka CUVs), one or the other (or both) of which are poorly represented in Chrysler's and Ford's lineups. Here's how the top seven fared overall:

Nissan – up 13%


Toyota – up 4.5%


Honda – up 3.8%


GM – Up 3.4%


Hyundai – down Chrysler – down 8.9%


Ford – down 9.5%

We'll have the detailed By The Numbers breakdown for our bellwether models next week.

Frank Williams
Frank Williams

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  • Mikey Mikey on Nov 03, 2007

    50 MERC: No, unless you want the super early retirement package.

  • Orenwolf Orenwolf on Nov 03, 2007

    So, is it worth asking how Mazda's numbers are? The Mazda3 has been one of the top selling small cars up here in the Great White North(TM) since 2005..

  • Jason Moy Jason Moy on Nov 03, 2007

    I hate post-1990's-Toyota, but I realize their about harvesting money, with the car only being a bait on a hook, than vice versa. But Toyota, despite its boring offerings, substandard engineering, and now shitty reliability, still keeps selling. And then it came to me, pistonheads shouldn't hate Toyota, they should hate the game, as in the general American car-buying public. Toyota is just giving dumb 'mericans what they want, and they know 'mericans aren't picky about build-quality anymore. So, when I get the urge to flame Toyota, I stop and think, then conclude I should flame my fellow Americans, the ones supporting the loopy T mafia anyway!

  • Cammy Corrigan Cammy Corrigan on Nov 04, 2007

    Jason: "Shitty reliability"? and "'mericans aren't picky about build quality"? I think you're being extremely harsh about Toyota, there (Much like I was about Nissan). Toyota may have had a few more recalls than normal, but they still are streets ahead of the competition (but just behind Honda). And I think americans DO care about build quality, why else are they abandoning Detroit steel? They general story with customers who "flipped" (been watching "The Sopranos"!) was that Detroit burnt them and the Japanese never let them down.

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