DETROIT — Auto sales numbers for December are out, and nearly all automakers showed fewer sales than the same period a year earlier. The exceptions were Subaru, Kia and Hyundai, with Subaru posting a 15.4 percent increase in sales volume and Kia and Hyundai up 9.8 and 8.3 percent, respectively. Other automakers saw sales drop from 4.3 percent for Volkswagen to a sobering 67.1 percent for Hummer in December.
Ford had the brightest picture of the U.S. auto companies, with a 33 percent increase in overall sales in December compared with December 2008. The company's 2009 sales were down more than 15 percent, however. That was actually better than both Toyota and BMW, which saw sales drop more than 20 percent in 2009.
Chrysler's sales were down nearly four percent for December from the same month in 2008 and down almost 36 percent for 2009 as a whole. General Motors posted a 6 percent drop in sales in December and a 35 percent decline for the full year.
Inside Line says: A ruinous year for the auto industry comes to a welcome end. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
Add A Comment »
wikiwiki says:
11:58 AM, 01/07/2010
This trend will continue for 2010 as well.
dg0472 says:
06:36 PM, 01/06/2010
This gets it quite wrong. While Hyundai, Kia, and Subaru were the only ones up for the year, quite a few makes were up for December. This article is a jumble of Dec. 2009, sales and 2009 sales as a whole.
yardman24 says:
06:25 PM, 01/06/2010
Go suby, hyundai and kia. thank u hyundai/kia for picking up where honda left off