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Car Sales Rebound In September

Car and truck sales rallied in September, trending more than twenty percent above a very weak September of 2009. But, analysts say the recovery remains very weak.

It was pretty good for all of Detroit's "big three." Chrysler sales were up 61 per cent, Ford 46 per cent, and General Motors 10.5 per cent.

"September was a very good month for the Ford Motor company, and an encouraging month for the overall industry as well," said Ford sales analysis manager George Pipas.

"We've gained a point to a point and a half of market share in the first nine months compared to a year ago," said Pipas. Ford gained a point of market share last year.

If the trends continue, it would be the first time since 1993 that Ford has seen consecutive yearly market share increases.

Chrysler's strong performance is attributed to a good debut for the new Jeep Grand Cherokee, and very good fleet sales.

"We topped 100 thousand units during September," says spokesman Ralph Kisiel. "That was the second time this year we've exceeded the 100 thousand unit threshold."

General Motors also benefiting from a number of new products

"Clearly our retail sales strength is on the back of, y'know, a lot of our new products, particularly our mid-size crossovers," said Don Johnson, GM's director of sales operations.

Toyota sales were up nearly 17 per cent, Honda sales up 26 per cent, Nissan sales up 34 per cent, Kia sales up 39 per cent. Hyundai sales are up 48 per cent.

While the major auto companies are looking for any good news they can find. The year-to-year comparisons are with a September 2009 that saw very weak car sales following the federal "Cash for Clunkers" program.

"Sales were very low a year ago," said J.D. Power analyst Jeff Schuster. "Inventories were very low a year ago."

With September's annual sales rate running at about 11 and a half million units, Schuster sees improvement in the last three months of the year.

"It wouldn't be out of the question to see 1.8 million selling rates as we get into the end of the fourth quarter here," he said.

GM's Don Johnson says there are signs that the economy is growing, if slowly.

"I think it was just overall continuing strength in the economy that we're seeing," he said.

Ford's Pipas, however, says we won't see a big increase in sales until consumer confidence improves and the unemployment rate falls.

"It's still mixed signals," he said. We don't expect much in the way of improvement in the coming months."

(Copyright 2010 WWJ Radio.  All Rights Reserved.)

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