November Sales Best Year-Ago by 12%, SAAR holds at 12.2 million for 2nd Month

U.S. Sales Summary Table

U.S. Light Vehicle Sales were up 12% over year-ago, bringing the industry’s year-to-date tally to 10.4 million units, an 11.1% improvement over the first 11 months of 2009. U.S. Sales maintained a seasonally adjusted rate of 12.2 million units for the second consecutive month, indicating that pent-up demand is starting to loosen up. Of the top seven auto companies in the U.S., all but General Motors Co.and Toyota Motor Corp. experienced double-digit growth.

GM daily sales were up 7.5% on strong commercial fleet deliveries and retail growth. Ford outperformed expectations as it too continued to see strong commercial fleet activity - with daily light vehicle sales up 19.1% over year ago and its year-to-date total tracking 21.1% above year ago.

Meanwhile, Chrysler Group LLC LV sales were up 12.1% over a dreadful year-ago - underperforming expectations and raising the possibility that the company is ceding its traditional share of fleet/commercial sales to Ford and GM?

Detroit auto makers collectively bested year-ago by 12.4%, slightly better than the industry average, while Asia-based OEMs' sales pace was 10.7% better than year-ago.

The Asia auto maker average was stunted by Toyota, the lone year-to-year loser - which saw its DSR drop 7.3% vs year-ago. Toyota's YTD total is almost dead-even with 2009.

Honda, meanwhile finished with a 16.1% rise in DSR for the month, bringing the company's YTD total to 5.5% above year-ago.

Hyundai Group, which was still undergoing dramatic Cash for Clunker payback a year-ago, saw its daily sales jump 40.3% versus last November, bringing the company's YTD volume up +20.4%.

Nissan also had a strong November - with sales rising 21.5% vs year-ago, and outpacing its October results by 15%.

Subaru continued double-digit growth in November up 17.3% bringing its year-to-date tally up 22.5% over like-2009.

Tata's Land Rover and Jaguar brands combined for a 16.6% DSR lift versus year-ago.

European companies collectively improved monthly daily sales 17.5% over year-ago, with BMW AG's DSR rising 20% and Volkswagen of America seeing growth of 22.8%.

Daimler's Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands underperformed the overall market, with a 5.7% gain over year-ago.

Porsche was up 43% vs 2009 on volumes of 2,416 units.