Thanks to the busy sales days after Thanksgiving, U.S. auto sales increased 9 percent in November compared to last year. Last month also saw the fastest sales pace in almost seven years, according to figures published in Automotive News.
General Motors and Chrysler Group highlighted November’s overall industry growth with sales increases of 14 and 16 percent, respectively. Rounding out Detroit’s Big Three, Ford Motor Co. lagged slightly behind the U.S. industry pace at 7 percent.
As for the Big Three Japanese automakers, Nissan led the way with an 11-percent increase, fueled mainly by a record month for Altima sales and parallel growth from the Infiniti brand. Toyota was not far behind at 10 percent. American Honda, however, remained flat, despite a growth of 19 percent in Acura sales. The Honda division dropped two percent from the year prior.
Subaru continued its outstanding 2013 overall sales pace, growing 30 percent in November. Subaru, which has seen the highest growth percentage of any brand overall in 2013, broke its annual sales record by October and is only adding to it.
On the German side, Volkswagen as a group dropped 8 percent over last year, mainly fueled by a 16-percent drop from the VW division. All other Volkswagen brands saw growth, including 13 percent from Audi. Through 11 months, Volkswagen as whole remained relatively flat at 1-percent growth.
Mercedes-Benz gained 14 percent in November, while primary competitor BMW grew just 2 percent. On the year, Mercedes-Benz is outselling BMW by 26,598 vehicles.
Jaguar Land Rover had another solid month with 37-percent growth as a group in November. The Jaguar brand more than doubled its November sales compared to last year, while Land Rover grew 25 percent.
On the surprise side of the numbers, Mitsubishi shot up 70 percent in November, bumping the brand to 4-percent overall growth in 2013 compared to the first 11 months of 2012.
