(December 1, 2010) Most automakers recorded double-digit sales increases in November, keeping the year's selling rate above 12 million vehicles for the second straight month. Overall, November sales were up 17 percent over 2009.

Of the three U.S. automakers, Ford was up 20 percent in month-over-month sales with 146,956 units, Chrysler was up 17 percent with 74,152 units, and General Motors was up 12 percent with 168,670 units sold.

For the year General Motors is up 7 percent and is the U.S. sales leader with 1,987,552 units sold. Ford is second, up 19 percent for the year, with sales of 1,773,868. Toyota, which has slipped throughout a tough year, is third with sales of 1,586,107 which is about even year-over-year.

Chrysler is fourth with sales of 984,509, representing a year-over-year increase of 17 percent.

Honda holds fifth place in sales at 1,100,864 units, up 6 percent from last year. Surging South Korean automaker Hyundai/Kia now holds sixth place ahead of Nissan with sales of 819,250, a 20 percent increase over 2009. Hyundai's November sales were up a whopping 46 percent month-over-month.

Nissan is less than 5,000 behind Hyundai, setting up a photo finish for sixth place in sales in December. Nissan was up 27 percent in November and is up 17 percent for the year with sales of 814,840.

“GM's sales were better than we expected,” said Rebecca Lindland, director of strategic review for IHS Automotive, which forecast GM sales to be 162,000 for the month. “They aren't blowing the doors out, but it's a slow, steady recovery.”

At GM, Buick led the way with a 36 percent increase, and GMC advanced 30 percent. Cadillac gained 21 percent and Chevrolet was up 18 percent, GM said in a statement today. The four brands combined were up 21 percent.

Through November, those brands have sold nearly 103,014 more vehicles than GM sold for the same period in 2009, when it had eight brands.

Ford's 20 percent gain factored November 2009 sales from Volvo. Without the Swedish unit that Ford has since sold, the year-over-year increase in November for the Ford, Mercury and Lincoln brands was 24 percent.

Toyota, despite higher spending on incentives from a year earlier, said combined sales of Toyota, Lexus and Scion models slipped 3 percent last month to 129,317 units.

Information from Automotive News