Car Sales Pace Hits Four-Year High

U.S. auto sales had a thirteen percent gain that unexpectedly pushed the monthly selling pace higher than for any month since the industry's 2008 collapse. Sales totaled 1,188,899 light vehicles for the month, almost 100,000 more than most forecasters had expected. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate rose to 14.9 million. That's higher than the cash-for-clunkers 14.6 million SAAR in August 2009 and the best since the near-fifteen million mark in March 2008.

Automaker executives expect a solid end to the year. "In the fourth quarter we expect it to be strong 14.3 [million] or so for the year, maybe a notch above that," said Toyota Division General Manager Bill Fay. "Not quite as strong as this month, but we expect good sustained sales this quarter."

Ken Czubay of Ford said: "The industry is on plan, Ford is on plan, and we're looking forward to a really good fourth quarter."

But September results were all-or-nothing among the major players. At one extreme: a forty-two percent gain at Toyota Motor Sales, which topped big advances at Volkswagen Group and American Honda. At the other: the slow- or no-growth trio of General Motors, Ford Motors, and Nissan North America. GM was up two percent while Ford fell less than a percent and Nissan was off one percent.

Toyota Motor Sales' forty-two percent surge further narrowed the gap with Ford Motor. Sales of 171,910 Toyota, Lexus, and Scion vehicles were only 2,544 behind the total for Ford and Lincoln. A year earlier, Toyota was more than 50,000 behind the U.S. industry's second-best selling automaker. The Toyota brand also finished closer to Number Two brand Chevrolet. Toyota's 144,781 sales were just 5,020 behind Chevy in September, a gain of almost 40,000 units in a year.

Industry car sales jumped 23 percent to 606,797 in September while light trucks climbed just four percent to 582,102. A year earlier, trucks led 561,423 to 492,347.

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