#SalesDecember2012

“Detroit’s automakers showed December U.S. sales gains of 5 percent, slightly better than analysts’ expectations,” says Reuters, “but likely not enough to stave off market-share gains by Japanese rivals.”

And here December and full year 2012 sales results in an easy to read table, data courtesy of Automotive News [sub ].

GM reports “the company’s highest December sales in five years,” with deliveries up 5 percent to 245,733 vehicles. For the year, GM’s U.S. sales are up only marginally. They rose 3.7 percent to 2,595,717 units. In a market expected to be up around 14 percent, this will translate into a serious drop of market share.

The German car market ended the year with a bang – to the chin. Germany had shrugged-off the European contagion for most of the year, but in December, sales sagged by an unfestive 16.4 percent.