For Some Auto Makers 2009 Hasn't Been so Bad

Nissan 370Z A Winner

Washington DC September 15, 2009; The AIADA newsletter reprorted that thirty-five of the car-truck nameplates on the U.S. market reported sales increases for the first eight months of this year.

John K. Teahan Jr. at Automotive News says that's not all bad in a year that everyone agrees has been a real stinker. But let's look at those numbers.

First of all, it's 35 out of 228, or 15.4 percent, in a bad year. Eight of those were introduced midway or later in 2008, so they weren't on the market for the full eight months last year.

It follows that 2009 sales are higher. Now we're down to 27 winners, or 11.8 percent. And four of them posted gains of 100 or fewer.

So, 23 major winners, or 10.1 percent. Nineteen of the 23 big gainers were internationals – four from Land Rover and three each from Hyundai, Kia, Jaguar, and Subaru. The Nissan Z sports car, Nissan Rogue crossover, and the Audi sedan were the others. After eight months, GM led Toyota by about 211,000 for the top spot and probably will maintain its grip on first place for the year.

Ford was third, followed by American Honda, Chrysler, Hyundai-Kia Automotive, and Nissan. American Honda Motor Co. is 153,588 sales ahead of Chrysler; last year Honda was up by only 7,787. Hyundai-Kia, now sixth, is 2,750 ahead of Nissan.

Last year at this time, Nissan led the Koreans by 202,530 sales.