November was the best month for U.S. auto sales since February 2007, with most automakers reporting strong growth thanks to discounts and the popularity of big pickup trucks. The past month, sales rose 8.9 percent to 1.24 million units.
The industry’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate reached 16.41 million vehicles last month up from 15.3 million a year earlier and exceeding analysts’ expectations for a rate of 15.75 million.
All U.S. automakers posted sales increases, with GM leading the way with 212,060 units (up 14 percent). The GMC brand posted the highest gain at 20 percent (35,727 units).
Ford sold 189,705 vehicles last month, an increase of 7 percent over November 2012, with the Lincoln brand posting a 17 percent increase to 6,727 units.
Chrysler deliveries rose 16 percent to 142,275 units, with the Ram brand gaining a whopping 25 percent (31,225 units). The Fiat unit, however, disappointed with a 15 percent decline to 3,075 units.
It was a good month for foreign automakers as well, with Toyota posting a 10 percent sales increase to 178,044 units. Lexus rose 13 percent to 25,611 units. Nissan sales rose 11 percent to 106,528 units, while Honda stagnated at 116,507 units.
Things were worse for Volkswagen, which saw its sales decline by 8 percent to 48,695 units, despite the fact that its luxury brands all posted gains (+13 percent for Audi, +51 percent for Bentley, +5 percent for Lamborghini and +3 percent for Porsche). With a drop of 16 percent to 30,727 units, the VW brand was the one that influenced the most the group’s results. Hyundai, on the other hand, posted a healthy 7 percent rise to 101,416 units.
As for luxury carmakers, Daimler rose 14 percent to 37,345 units (36,386 of which were Mercedes-Benz vehicles), surpassing rival BMW, which stagnated at 36,411 units. BMW’s result was affected by a 13 percent drop in Mini sales, while the BMW brand and Rolls-Royce rose 2 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
Finally, Jaguar Land Rover posted a 37 percent gain to 6,047 units, with the Jaguar brand increasing by 103 percent to 1,446 units.
By Dan Mihalascu
Sales data sourced from Autonews
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