(November 3, 2010) Strong showings from General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Honda, combined with some big gains by smaller automakers, made October a surprisingly strong sales month.

The single disappointment was at Toyota where sales dipped 4 percent compared to October 2009.

Ford posted a 15 percent gain, Chrysler showed a 37 percent increase, General Motors was up 4 percent and Honda jumped 16 percent.

At the Ford division, car demand rose 23 percent, fueled by sales of the Fusion and Focus. Sales of the F-Series pickup jumped 24 percent last month, helping overall Ford Division light truck demand advance 20 percent. At Lincoln, sales rose 2 percent. Ford is up 19 percent for the year.

Although GM's gain was small, it was better than analysts had predicted. “GM exceeded our expectations,” said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at researcher IHS Automotive. “Consumers who have a job are feeling a little bit better and not fearing every Friday anymore.

GM's comparisons to last year continued to be dragged down by its discontinued brands. The company sold 15,089 Saab, Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac models in October 2009; last month, just 367 units of those brands were sold.

It was Chrysler's seventh month-over-month increase. Chrysler is up 17 percent for the year over 2009.

At Honda, the availability of the new 2011 Odyssey, in its first full month on the market, helped push Honda light-truck sales up 37.8 percent to 41,463, the automaker said.

The Hyundai-Kia Group continued its success, showing a huge 38 percent increase from October 2009. The South Korean company is up 19 percent for the year.

Nissan turned in good figures as well, up 16 percent month-over-month. Nissan is up 16 percent for the year and stands as the sixth largest company by sales volume in the U.S., trailing Hyundai/Kia by just a few thousand.

Toyota, still attempting to recover from the recall meltdown, saw sales dip in October to 145,474 compared to 152,165 last October. For the year, Toyota is up a scant 1 percent.

Of the smaller automakers, Subaru continues to stand out. It posted a month-over-month gain of 25 percent and is up 23 percent for the year.

Other automakers: BMW, up 13 percent; Daimler, up 3 percent: Mazda, up 20 percent; Mitsubishi, up 32 percent;  Volkswagen, up 16 percent; and Suzuki, up 17 percent. Mitsubishi's performance pulled it even for the year.