The October sales figure for nearly every manufacturer are out, and as you can see, there's a lot of little green arrows below. The stellar performances this month are most likely due to the fact that last year this time is when the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita combined with the end of big incentives depressed sales across the industry. A win's a win, though, and the winners for the month include all the multi-brand automakers save for BMW and its MINI brand. The whole of General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler were all up, as were Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. It was the performance of the two companies trying to negotiate turnarounds, General Motors and Ford, that really surprised us. In fact, every brand in the General's fold showed an increase in sales during October compared with the same month last year, propelling the company to an impressive 21.6% increase in sales. Ford managed to post an 8.1% increase in sales, it's second monthly sales increase in a row, as Jaguar's fall of 22.3% on 1,366 units sold and Volvo's decrease of 3.3% had little impact overall. Toyota again outpaced its Japanese rivals with a rise in sales of 13.6% overall with the Toyota brand posting a 14.6% gain. The Ford brand, however, remained the most popular outselling both Toyota and Chevrolet. We'll end the analysis here as the SEMA show floor is beckoning, but would like to note that the percentages below represent the change in daily sales average of each company, not the change in the raw number of vehicles sold. This is due to the fact that there were 25 selling days this month versus 26 days in October, 2005.


BRANDS
Acura 0.7% at 15,877 (10/05: 16,398)
Audi –3.4% at 6,431 (10/05: 6,659)
BMW –7.2% at 20,822 (10/05: 22,432)
Buick 20.1% at 15,541 (10/05: 13,462)
Cadillac 18.9% at 17,052 (10/05: 14,917)
Chevrolet 17.5% at 171,890 (10/05: 152,093)
Chrysler –16% at 41,635 (10/05: 51,766)
Dodge 0.0% at 77,654 (10/05: 80,617)
Ford 10.2% at 183,188 (10/05: 166,266)
GMC 66.2% at 38,776 (10/05: 24,258)
Honda 4.3% at 94,747 (10/05: 94,497)
HUMMER 2.6% at 5,565 (10/05: 5,640)
Hyundai 3.6% 30,479 (10/05: 29,413)
Infiniti –1.8% at 9,406 (10/05: 9,962)
Isuzu 1.4% at 1,097 (10/05: 1,125)
Jaguar –22.3 at 1,366 (10/05: 1,758)
Jeep 29% at 40,297 (10/05: 32,431)
Kia –2.6% at 20,097 (10/05: 20,631)
Land Rover 6.7% at 4,004 (10/05: 3,753)
Lexus 7.0% at 24,006 (10/05: 23,331)
Lincoln 3.4% at 8,766 (10/05: 8,477)
Mazda –3.4% at 18,843 (10/05: 19,495)
Mercedes 12% at 20,598 (10/05: 18,349)
Mercury –5.9% at 10,277 (10/05: 10,922)
MINI 13.7% at 3,642 (10/05: 3,203)
Nissan 9.6% at 65,689 (10/05: 62,317)
Pontiac 6.8% at 29,346 (10/05: 28,565)
Porsche 9.0% at 2,487 (10/05: 2,729)
Saab 112% at 2,731 (10/05: 1,340)
Saturn 24.3% at 19,319 (10/05: 16,167)
Suzuki –5% at 5,950 (10/05: 6,246)
Toyota 14.6% at 165,005 (10/05: 149,754)
Volkswagen –7.4% at 15,942 (10/05: 17,207)
Volvo –3.3% at 8,384 (10/05: 8,671)

NOT YET REPORTED
Mitsubishi
Subaru

COMPANIES
BMW Group –4.6% at 24,464 (10/05: 25,635)
Chrysler Group 1% at 159,586 (10/05: 164,814)
Ford Motor Co 8.1% at 215,985 (10/05: 199,847)
General Motors 21.6% at 301,317 (10/05: 257,622)
Honda America 3.7% at 110,624 (10/05: 110,895)
Nissan North America 8.1% at 75,095 (10/05: 72,279)
Toyota Motor Co. 13.6% at 189,011 (10/05:173,085)