#November2011

You’ll probably hear that the Chinese car market grew a tiny bit in November. Don’t believe it. Not true. According to data released today by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) the market for all automobiles dropped 2.42 percent compared to November last year. Not that the sky would be falling:

The German new car market appears to be unimpressed by the European tribulations. Germans bought 269.144 new cars in November, up 2.6 percent compared to November 2010. This according to registration data released by the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt.

Regular Vehicle Sales Japan November 2011

ManufacturerNov ’11Nov ’10ChangeFYTD’11FYTD’10ChangeDaihatsu29625715.2%2,8745,621-48.9%Hino3,0682,54020.8%30,79226,61715.7%Honda32,77732,2941.5%347,587457,669-24.1%Isuzu4,1853,27028.0%37,80240,591-6.9%Lexus3,7951,93895.8%40,12331,75226.4%Mazda10,8797,05054.3%135,236166,853-18.9%Mitsubishi4,5503,02650.4%51,50564,885-20.6%Mitsubishi Fuso3,1592,05953.4%24,44822,6697.8%Nissan39,47031,48625.4%411,811474,380-13.2%Subaru4,8414,39610.1%66,95973,958-9.5%Suzuki6,0803,94854.0%71,00754,48330.3%Toyota120,30596,87424.2%1,056,1051,453,901-27.4%UD Trucks95555970.8%7,5937,5101.1%Other17,87613,54931.9%183,272169,1618.3%Total252,236203,24624.1%2,467,1143,050,050-19.1%

All things are relative: Now that we are comparing with absolutely dismal numbers in the preceding year, November car sales in Japan look downright healthy. Sales of new cars, trucks and buses were 252,236 units, up 24.1 percent from a year earlier in November, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association says. The numbers do not include sales of separately reported minivehicles.

November was a rough month on our analysts. The surprisingly strong showing of Chrysler threw everybody’s aim off. Real-time powered Jessica Caldwell of Edmunds takes the top spot again – but with a degree of precision that would have landed her back in the field in the preceding months. She won because the others did worse.