The month of November 2011 is officially over which means the U.S. auto industry has released its sales figures. If the month proved anything, it showed that the large car is hurting. Of the four categories of cars, the large segment was the only one that fell from last year as only 2,004 were sold during November. That figure is down 66.1 percent from 2010 and stark contrast to the midsize car which sold 229,300 units. Despite the small and midsize car increase, America still loves its pickups. 531,301 total light-duty trucks (including SUVs and vans) were sold, a 13.8 percent increase from last year and the pickup itself saw a 21.7 percent increase compared to November 2010. Rapidly making its way to the top of the segment castle is the midsize SUV which witnessed a 52.9 percent jump from last November.
As if history didn’t repeat itself enough, the Ford F-Series truck was the top selling vehicle once again. The Blue Oval sold a total of 47,740 units, which was an increase of 23.9 percent. Second place went to the other all-American hauler, the Chevrolet Silverado, which sold 34,251. The recent release of the 2012 Toyota Camry helped the car make it to third place; 24,330 sedans were sold last month. Honda managed to make a big comeback as it took best selling compact car honors with their Civic. Despite its love-or-leave it redesign, the Japanese institution beat the previous champ, the Chevrolet Cruze. Chevy sold 13,238 compacts compared to Honda’s 17,133.
In the race for top manufacture, General Motors won once again for November. The brand sold a total of 180,402 vehicles with the majority of those sales (123,056) coming from their trucks. Ford wasn’t too far behind with 166,441 total vehicle sales while the other member of the Big Three found itself beaten by Japanese Toyota. Chrysler LLC sold 107,172 cars and trucks which was a 44.5 percent increase from last year. Impressive but not enough to take third place which was had by Toyota. For the first month in a long time, the brand managed to see an increase from 2010 with a total vehicle sales number of 137,960. It may have only been a 6.7 percent increase from last year, but it is better from the last few months which saw drops over 20 percent. Volkswagen saw a big jump from last November as 28,412 total sales was 40.7 percent better than 2010.
During the month of November, Ferrari sold 148 cars in the United States. Maserati managed to unload 191 cars while only 36 Rolls Royces were sold. To further validate Mercedes-Benz’s decision to axe Maybach, only 2 cars were purchased during the 25 selling days. A total of 994,721 light duty cars and trucks were sold in the United States during November 2011. That figure may be below one million, but it is still an increase from 2010 by 13.9 percent.
Source: Wall Street Journal
