US auto sales rose to the highest rate in 16 months last month and major automakers forecast the recovery would gather momentum this year as the industry distances itself from one of its deepest slumps ever.
Auto sales are one of the first snapshots of US consumer demand. The 11 percent rise in last month’s auto sales stands as the latest in a string of indicators including unexpectedly strong factory orders for November pointing toward growing confidence in the recovery.
US auto sales rose more than 11 percent last year to almost 11.6 million vehicles, snapping a four-year slide that forced the Detroit automakers into a wrenching restructuring that included government-directed bankruptcies for General Motors (GM) and Chrysler.
In a year-end surge that took the industry by surprise, the annualized sales rate for last month jumped to almost 12.6 million vehicles, the highest rate since August 2009 when the US government’s “Cash for Clunkers” trade-in incentives touched off a short-lived boom.
Major automakers, including Ford and GM, said they expected that sales for this year could top the 13 million-vehicle level. Analysts said that estimate could prove conservative if the momentum of recent months continues.
“We have seen real improvement in actual consumer demand, particularly in the last quarter of 2010,” TrueCar.com analyst Jesse Toprak said.
GM’s sales rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier last month. Ford Motor Co’s sales rose 6.7 percent and the carmaker overtook Toyota Motor Corp as No. 2 in the US market for last year.
Toyota, which has been struggling with the aftermath of a safety crisis that surfaced in late 2009, posted a sales decline of almost 6 percent last month.
For last year, Toyota sales were almost flat from 2009, the worst of the downturn when industry-wide sales were at the -lowest level since the 1980s.
Other major automakers posted double-digit percentage gains for last month. Chrysler sales rose 16 percent and Nissan Motor Co sales rose 28 percent. Sales for Honda Motor Co were up 21 percent.
Hyundai Motor Co’s sales gained 33 percent. Its affiliate Kia Motors posted a 45 percent gain, continuing a trend that has seen the South Korean brands take a share from rivals in a recovering US market.
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