With analysts projecting that December will be even better, the industry is closing the year strong despite continued sluggishness in the nation’s economy. Consumers and businesses are finding they can no longer put off replacing their vehicles, which are now an average of almost 11 years old, a record.
Chrysler said sales for all its brands surged 45 percent in the United States compared with November 2010. Sales of its passenger cars more than doubled, and the Chrysler brand, which has been advertising heavily, reported a 92 percent increase. Sales of Jeeps climbed 50 percent for that brand’s best November since 2003.
Sales were up 13 percent for the Ford Motor Company. It sold 26 percent more trucks and sport utility vehicles but 9 percent fewer cars. Demand for the Ford Explorer S.U.V. more than tripled.
General Motors said its sales rose 7 percent. Sales of G.M.’s compact and subcompact cars, including the Chevrolet Cruze, were 54 percent higher, and it sold 31 percent more full-size pickup trucks.
“We are seeing a broad spectrum of customers return to the market,” Don Johnson, G.M.’s vice president of United States sales operations, said in a statement. “Truck sales showed a very solid increase, as we expected, but the momentum building behind our most fuel-efficient vehicles was even stronger.”
One automaker that did not report a gain was Honda, whose sales fell 6 percent. Honda’s operations were the most disrupted by the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the company is still working to fully rebuild its inventories. Toyota, which also experienced a sales downturn for much of the year, said it sold 7 percent more cars and trucks in November.
Nissan reported a 19 percent gain, led by higher demand for its Versa and Sentra small cars.
Many consumers who held off buying a new vehicle because of the uncertain economy, or because of inventory shortages that caused prices to jump, are now making a purchase. The result is a “mini-bubble” that will end in early 2012, said Edmunds.com, a Web site for automotive information.
The industry’s annualized selling rate, seasonally adjusted, climbed in November to 13.63 million vehicles, the highest since the government’s cash-for-clunkers program in August 2009. In June, the selling rate was 11.45 million.
Automakers are on track to sell at least 12.7 million vehicles this year, about 10 percent more than last year.
“People are now returning to the marketplace, and that’s what’s driving the sales increases over the last couple of months,” said Jeremy Anwyl, the chief executive of Edmunds. “But the idea that there’s a sustained turnaround under way and that this will continue is probably overstating things.”
But Ford executives said they expected the market to keep growing steadily, and they increased fourth-quarter production by 2 percent from the company’s previous forecast.
“The industry sales rate has exceeded 13 million in each of the last three months,” said Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president for United States marketing, sales and service, said in a statement. “This suggests the current momentum is not an aberration. We believe replacement demand will continue to support stronger levels in 2012.”
November was the best month so far for G.M.’s plug-in hybrid car, the Chevrolet Volt. It sold 1,139 Volts, bringing the year’s total to 6,142. G.M. officials acknowledged Thursday for the first time that the company would not achieve its goal of selling 10,000 Volts this year after federal safety regulators said they were opening an investigation into the car’s 400-pound lithium-ion battery pack.
G.M. has since sent letters to all Volt owners to reassure them of the car’s safety, and it offered to lend anyone who was concerned about the issue a replacement vehicle free. It also has offered to buy back cars from dissatisfied owners.
Sales of the Volt’s primary competition, the Nissan Leaf, were 672 in November, for a total of 8,720 this year. Both cars were introduced in late 2010.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=fb87add953697b28625a72fc2c61ed6a
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