Bloomberg News
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Ford, Toyota and Honda posted U.S. sales gains in December that beat analysts' estimates as the industry showed signs of stabilizing after its worst year in almost three decades.
General Motors reported a 5.7 percent drop in light-vehicle deliveries, worse than analysts anticipated, while Chrysler's 3.7 percent decline exceeded estimates. Ford sales soared 33 percent, and Toyota jumped 32 percent.
"People are waking up and realizing the world didn't end and are starting to return to showrooms," said Aaron Bragman, a forecaster at IHS Global Insight in Troy, Mich. "It's way too early to say the trend is pointing north, but if it continues this quarter, it's a positive sign."
An industrywide increase for December would cap automakers' first quarterly improvement since the last three months of 2006, after October and November totals were little changed. The recession and bankruptcies at the predecessors of Detroit-based GM and Chrysler ravaged 2009 sales.
Honda said U.S. deliveries increased 24 percent, and Nissan jumped 18 percent. The results reshuffled the industry rankings in the United States, with Honda climbing past Chrysler and into fourth place for the first time in full-year sales.
Ford, spurred by an 83 percent gain for the Fusion and a doubling of Taurus sales, said the December results gave the automaker an estimated 15 percent of 2009 U.S. sales for the first full-year increase in its home market since 1995. Ford said 2008's total was about 14 percent.
The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate may be 11.1 million light vehicles, according to the average estimate of eight analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
